Product Description

Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book is an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. The book provides the tools needed to avoid usability surprises and improve product quality. Step-by-step information on which method to use at various stages during the development lifecycle are included, along with detailed information on how to run a usability test and the unique issues relating to international usability.

* Emphasizes cost-effective methods that developers can implement immediately
* Instructs readers about which methods to use when, throughout the development lifecycle, which ultimately helps in cost-benefit analysis.
* Shows readers how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects.
* Includes detailed information on how to run a usability test.
* Covers unique issues of international usability.
* Features an extensive bibliography allowing readers to find additional information.
* Written by an internationally renowned expert in the field and the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175598 in Books
• Published on: 1993
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 362 pages

Review
"The purpose of Jakob Nielsen's Usability Engineering is to help nontechnical people improve the systems so that they are not only error-free but also easier and more pleasant to use, and more efficient. It is a book that ...shows us how to change the world and does so admirably....One of this book's strengths is that it provides a wide selection of methods for improving systems, and allows for the unavoidable constraints of the real world."
--NEW SCIENTIST

Synopsis
Written by the author of the best-selling "HyperText & HyperMedia", this book is an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. The book provides the tools needed to avoid usability surprises and improve product quality. Step-by-step information on which method to use at various stages during the development lifecycle are included, along with detailed information on how to run a usability test and the unique issues relating to international usability. It emphasizes cost-effective methods that developers can implement immediately. It instructs readers about which methods to use when, throughout the development lifecycle, which ultimately helps in cost-benefit analysis. It shows readers how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects. It includes detailed information on how to run a usability test. It covers unique issues of international usability. It features an extensive bibliography allowing readers to find additional information. It is written by an internationally renowned expert in the field and the author of the best-selling "HyperText & HyperMedia."

From the Author
Detailed ToC online
The basic philosophy of the book is YOU CAN DO IT! It is about cheap and fast methods that anybody can use in any interface design project (whether Web design, software design, or gadget design) to drastically improve usability. It is quite common to be able to cut users' learning time in half (thus cutting your training budget or support center costs by a similar amount).

Customer Reviews

Seminal work on UE - essential for e-business managers
Great read - full of useful insights to ensure one can build a better e-business. Memorable, intuitive, interactive and compelling - a paradigm of UE in itself. Good analysis of the differences in UE across cultures and countries. Disappointing coverage of the E-UECRM space - but then no-one seems to have grasped this concept fully and eloquently as yet.

20/20 vision on only 60 percent of the problem
As a Web site designer, I've long been an advocate of JakobNielsen's ideas -- to an extent. Usability is arguably the most important aspect of any design project, and an aspect too often ignored by many software and Web site designers.

Mr. Nielsen, in his book, very aptly points out typical errors and common stumbling blocks of interface design, and presents very convincing arguments and methods for solving these problems. However, strict adherence to Mr. Nielsen's interface design techniques, at the expense of less easily measured human factors, will often result in a sterile and boring product. Both are eminently efficient and usable, but are also wonderful examples of visual blandness -- nearly devoid of the human and aesthetic factors that contributes to a depth of personality and a richness of sensory stimulation.

Although Mr. Nielsen never specifically advocates this, the logical conclusion of his approach is an interface design whose personality and soul have been stripped away in a slavish preference for pure, unencumbered efficiency and usability. Contrary to Mr. Nielsen's examples, the quest for usability should not abrogate the need to avoid ugliness.

For the sake of efficient usability, I wonder if Mr. Nielsen has replaced his impractical, hard-to-maintain backyard lawn with efficient asphalt paving. Or maybe pulled out his expensive, hard-to-clean, dirt collecting, living room carpet and replaced it with an efficient concrete floor. I'm joking of course, but even if Mr. Nielson thinks this way, most do not. Yet, this is the result achieved by many of his user interface examples.

Perhaps on the planet Vulcan where everyone thinks like Mr. Spock, Mr. Nielsen's conclusions and methods might be the eminently rational final word on good interface design. But on Earth the value of his conclusions and usability tests must be weighed against the somewhat hard-to-measure and difficult-to-quantify factors of illogical human personality and perception.

Although Mr. Nielsen's observations, conclusions and suggestions continue to be very valuable in helping to pull interface design towards much needed greater usability and functionality, his mistake seems to be that this is all he sees as being important.

Cory Maylett

This book is a must-have for all software developers.
Over the past 10 years only a few programming books have made it onto my 'must have' list. Usability Engineering is near the top. Jakob Nielsen's style is humorous and exact. More good advice could hardly be packed into one volume than you will find here.