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Website Critique     
 
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Is Jakob Nielsen Relevant
Posted By: cosmicdancer1999* on 1/4/2005 8:39 AM (CST) 125 Points
Do Jakob Nielsen's design guidelines have any relevance in contemporary web design?

Posted by: SRyan ;] Accepted Answer
1/4/2005 8:54 AM (CST)
Yes, absolutely.

Think of it this way: Not everybody follows all ten commandments of the Old Testament, but those who DO are probably living more effective lives.

Same goes for Jakob Nielsen's rules. The better they're followed, the more effective the website.

Shelley ;]
 
Posted by: MRowland Accepted Answer
1/4/2005 9:04 AM (CST)
Yes, but don't go overboard with what he says...

There is a simplistic way to design a web site without flash and other annoying tricks, without poor navigation, and without leading your visitors through a large number of pages to get to their objective. However not all sites should look like Google's home page.

I think the main advice to remember when designing your website is:

1) Get your benefits to the visitor out early, like on page 1 or 2
2) Keep navigation simple and consistent on all pages
3) Keep pictures to a minimum unless you are providing an online catalog
4) Avoid flash introduction pages or anything else that wastes time and does not have an objective that meets your business objectives

All of this is covered by NNG. In short, the advice of Jakob Nielson is good, but you must think of your own organizational objectives and how your website can help achieve them. It all ties back to meeting your objectives while not providing your site visitors an easy reason to leave your site.

Good luck

Mike
Impact Interactions
Building Strategic Interactions for Business Online
 
Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
1/4/2005 10:32 AM (CST)
I would tend to agree, follow the guidelines, he doesn't know everything, but he is darn close.
 
Posted by: wilreynolds* Member Response
1/5/2005 8:52 AM (CST)
Playing off of the biblical references, not all things mentioned in the bible are meant to be taken 100% literally. Take the same approach here...if you did everything that JN said to do, your sites would be often ugly and unappealing, they wouldn't make a mark or an impression. Never take the word of a guru and run with everything they say, analyze their usefulness in YOUR situation and see if it fits.
 
Posted by: sammykarij Member Response
1/19/2005 7:43 AM (CST)
Very relevant though not all. As he observed in one of his recent article most usability requirements change quite slowly however, afew of them are rendered irrelevant due to passage of time, technology changes and user learning.

Relevancy also will be determined by who your target market is. After all market satisfaction is the primary goal.
 
Posted by: Colleen Sharen* Accepted Answer
1/28/2005 4:06 PM (CST)
Okay, here's a thought. JN provides user insights based on studies of thousands of users.

Why not start asking everyone you know what they think of your website, and what could improve it. Over time, certain themes will start to emerge, and you can make changes.

The more you become your own "useability" expert, the better you will be able to evaluate the experts' recommendations and how they will apply to your website. The better you know your users, the more you can deliver what they want (and hopefully what you want).

Colleen
 
Posted by: telemoxie Member Response
2/1/2005 11:41 PM (CST)
Knowing rules for creating usable web sites is clearly relevant to good design - you can always break the rules, but you should not break rules without know which rules you are breaking, and why.
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
2/4/2005 2:12 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than two weeks old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions.

Thanks, so much, for participating!
Val (Moderator)
 


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