[corti]
The Alertbox:
Current Issues in Web Usability
Bi-weekly column by Dr. Jakob Nielsen,
principal, Nielsen Norman Group
Current Column
- January 23, 2000: Saying No: How to handle missing features
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Previous Columns
Highlighted text indicates the most popular columns according
to the log file statistics.
- The mud-throwing theory of usability (April
2, 2000)
- Why you only need to test with 5 users (March
19, 2000)
- Is navigation useful? (January 9, 2000)
- Predictions for the Web in 2000 (December 26, 1999)
- Voodoo usability (December 12, 1999)
- Usability as barrier to entry (November 28, 1999)
- When bad design becomes the standard (November
14, 1999)
- Graceful degradation of scalable Internet services
(October 31, 1999)
- Prioritize: Good content bubbles to the top (October
17, 1999)
- Ten good deeds in web design (October 3,
1999)
- User-supportive Internet architecture (September
19, 1999)
- Reputation managers are finally happening (September
5, 1999)
- Do interface standards stifle design creativity?
(August 22, 1999)
- Video and streaming media (August 8, 1999)
- Metcalfe's Law in reverse (July 25, 1999)
- Web research: Believe the data (includes sidebar
on affiliates programs) (July 11, 1999)
- Content integration (June 27, 1999)
- Disabled accessibility: the pragmatic approach
(June 13, 1999)
- The top ten new mistakes of web
design (May 30, 1999)
- Who commits the "Top Ten Mistakes" in web design?
(May 16, 1999)
- "Top Ten Mistakes" revisited three years later
(May 2, 1999)
- Stuck with old browsers until 2003 (April
18, 1999)
- Intranet portals: the corporate information infrastructure
(April 4, 1999)
- URL as UI (March 21, 1999)
- Trust or Bust: Communicating trustworthiness
in web design (March 7, 1999)
- Details in study methodology can make results irrelevant (February
21, 1999)
- Why people shop on the Web (February 7, 1999)
- The difference between print design and Web
design (January 24, 1999)
- Give me your billions: Internet stock valuation
and future user characteristics (January 17, 1999)
- Collecting feedback from users of a Web archive (reader challenge)
(January 10, 1999)
- Predictions for the Web in 1999 (December 27, 1998)
- Bill Gates' shopping list to build the Internet
Desktop (December 13, 1998)
- The value of keeping pages alive forever (November
29, 1998)
- 2D is better than 3D (November 15, 1998)
- Why Yahoo is good (but may get worse) (November
1, 1998)
- Failure of corporate websites (October
18, 1998)
- Personalization is over-rated (October
4, 1998)
- Does Internet = Web? (September 20, 1998)
- Microcontent: writing headlines, page titles, and email
subject lines (September 6, 1998)
- The end of legacy media (newspapers, magazines,
books, TV networks) (August 23, 1998)
- The Web usage paradox: Why do people use something
this bad? (August 9, 1998)
- Electronic books - a bad idea (July 26, 1998)
- Impact of data quality on the Web user experience
(July 12, 1998)
- Should you outsource Web design? (June 28, 1998)
- Fighting linkrot (June 14, 1998)
- Micro-containers and new distribution networks
are an example of strategic thinking and the coming Web patent bonanza (May
31, 1998)
- Using "greeked" layouts to test page templates
(May 17, 1998)
- Cost of user testing a website (May 3,
1998)
- Global Web: Driving the international network economy
(April 19, 1998)
- Nielsen's Law of Internet bandwidth: it
grows by 50% per year (April 5, 1998)
- The increasing conservatism of Web users
(March 22, 1998)
- Better than Reality: A fundamental Internet principle
(March 8, 1998)
- Tracking the growth of a site (February 22, 1998)
- The Reputation Manager (February 8, 1998)
- The case for micro-payments (January 25, 1998)
- Using link titles to help users predict
where they are going (January 11, 1998)
- Predictions for the Web in 1998 (January 1, 1998)
- Changes in Web usability since 1994 (December
1, 1997)
- Book review: Esther Dyson's Release 2.0
gives strategic vision for the network economy (November 15, 1997)
- The Tyranny of the Page: continued lack of decent navigation
support in Version 4 browsers (November 1, 1997)
- Functionality applets vs. content applets: when
to step outside the Web page (October 15, 1997)
- How people read on the Web (October 1, 1997)
- Difference between intranet and Internet
design (September 15, 1997)
- Why advertising doesn't work on the Web (except
for classified ads which are better online than
in print) (September 1, 1997)
- Community is dead; long live mega-collaboration
(August 15, 1997)
- Loyalty on the Web; how to use "frequent-browser
points" (August 1, 1997)
- Search usability (July 15, 1997)
- Effective use of style sheets (July 1, 1997)
- Top ten mistakes of Web management (June
15, 1997)
- The fallacy of atypical examples like Yahoo, Wall
St. Journal, Disney, and Amazon (June 1, 1997)
- The telephone is the best metaphor for the Web (May
15, 1997)
- The difference between Web design and GUI design
(May 1, 1997)
- Do websites have increasing returns? (how important
is it to be a big site?) (April 15, 1997)
- Tech support tales show that novice users have immense
problems using the Internet (April 1, 1997)
- Be succinct: how to write for the Web (March
15, 1997)
- The need for download speed (March 1, 1997)
- TV vs. computers as Web media (February 15, 1997)
- WebTV usability review (February 1, 1997)
- Trends for the Web in 1997 (January 1997)
- Why frames suck most of the time (December
1996)
- Marginalia of Web design: page titles, colored text,
and thumbnail images (November 1996)
- Web access for disabled users (October 1996)
- The rise of the sub-site (September 1996)
- International usability (August 1996)
- A review of Slate Magazine (July 1996;
comments on their redesign added August 16, 1996)
- How to write inverted pyramids in cyberspace
(June 1996)
- Top ten mistakes of Web design (May 1996)
- The Web backlash of 1996 (April 1996)
- The Internet Desktop (March 1996)
- In defense of paper (February 1996)
- Trends for website survival in 1996: Relationships on the
Web (January 1996)
- Guidelines for multimedia on the Web (December
1995)
- How much bandwidth is enough? (November 1995)
- Who should you hire to design your website? (October
1995)
- Trying to kill a meme for the growth of the Web (September
1995)
- Directions for online publishing and the five
generations of online services (August 1995)
- The future of Web browsers and their navigation support
features (July 1995)
- Warning against pitfalls in Java and HotJava user interfaces
(June 1995)
Planned Future Columns
- February 6, 2000: How to write a usability report
- February 20, 2000: Content payment schemes
- March 5, 2000: Customers as designers
The topics of future columns may change without warning.
History of the Alertbox Column
- 1995: 50,000 page views on an annualized basis (actually 30,000 page views in a 7-month period)
- 1996: 189,000 page views
- 1997: 576,000 page views (all of useit.com received 826,000 page views)
- 1998: 2.0 million page views (all of useit.com received 3.0 Mpv)
- 1999: 3.1 million page
views (all of useit.com received 4.7 Mpv)
- 2000: predicted to be about 5 Mpv for Alertbox and 7 Mpv for useit
In addition to the traffic numbers listed here, the Alertbox received about
2.3 million page downloads from PointCast (mainly in 1998). I have not counted
these pages as being traffic since I doubt that very many of the "pushed"
pages were actually seen by users.