Web Usability Articles & Videos

  • The Telephone is the Best Metaphor for the Web

    The telephone is a better metaphor than television for thinking about the Web and its potential: the Web is a 1-to-1, narrowcast, low bandwidth medium that is user-driven and where everybody can publish content.

  • TV Meets the Web

    Comparing the nature of the Web as a medium when accessed through television sets and when accessed through computers, concluding that the level of user engagement is a main differentiator

  • Usability Testing of Advanced Homepage Concepts for the Sun Microsystems' 1997 Web Design

    Users' reactions to early design ideas for the Sun Microsystems' 1997 Web site demonstrate that users are becoming more web sophisticated, and prefer straightfoward access to content.

  • Trends for the Web in 1997

    Two major trends will revive the Web as a useful tool beyond the current hype and uselessness.

  • Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time)

    Frames break the unified model of the web and introduce a new way of looking at data that has not been well integrated into the other aspects of the web.

  • Marginalia of Web Design

    Some "minor" details of web design--such as font size, text color, and image cropping-- can have important consequences for Web usability.

  • The Web Backlash of 1996

  • Evolution of the Home Page Design for the 1995 Sun Microsystems' Website

    Screenshots and descriptions of 9 of the homepage versions created for the Sun Microsystems' 1995 Web site redesign effort, and tested with users to optimize the layout and content.

  • Iterative Design and Testing of Icon Usability

    Icons for Sun Microsystems' website design were designed and tested in several iterations, both independent of and in context with the full Web site design.

  • The Future of Hypertext

    Excerpt from Jakob Nielsen's 1995 book, Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond, offers predictions for the short term (3 to 5 year) and medium term (5 to 10 year) and long term (10 to 20 year) future of hypertext and the internet.

  • Response Times: The 3 Important Limits

    How users react to delays in a user interface, whether website or application. The 3 main response time limits are determined by human perceptual abilities.