Domain infos www.useit.com

Alertbox column, Web usability, usability engineering, and Jakob's minimalist approach to Web design; Jakob's biography. Conferences and training events.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content Summary: Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. F for fa

The ten most egregious offenses against users. Web design disasters and HTML horrors are legion, though many usability atrocities are less common than they used to be.

"In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action." Any response from the regular

Top Ten Design Mistakes in Blogs (

A research project about how users read on the Web and how authors should write their Web pages (a study by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen): includes downloadable files, tasks, and questionnaires to al

Tips on writing content for the net. Internet users don't like to read - KISS (keep it simple stupid).

(Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Great list with real examples and explanations of common design and usability mistakes and how to avoid them. Interesting for designers and programmers.

Users now have precise expectations for the behavior of search. Designs that invoke this mental model but work differently are confusing.

Optimize Web pages for 1024x768, but use a liquid layout that stretches well for any resolution, from 800x600 to 1280x1024.

Search is the user's lifeline for mastering complex websites. The best designs offer a simple search box on the home page and play down advanced search and scoping.

Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

Nielsen rants about UI in the movies. Pretty (unintentionally) funny!

Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won't find your site.

28% of text on pages

A field study identified twenty-two ways that automated hospital systems can result in the wrong medication being dispensed to patients. Most of these flaws are classic usability problems that have be

The more engaged users are, the more features an application can sustain. But most users have low commitment -- especially to websites, which must focus on simplicity, rather than features.

Search is the primary interface to the Web for many users. Search should be global (not scoped to a subsite) and available from every page; booleans should be made intimidating since users usually use

Jakob speaks out to announce to the world that Breadcrumbs are officially useful.