Designing Web Usability the Practice of Simplicity, Dr Jakob Nielsen, New Riders Publishing, 420pp, £35 sterling
Great Web Architecture, Clay Andres, IDG Books, 220pp, £43 sterling
Why are so many websites so bad? This question isn't directed at the "here's my homepage" ones that have nothing on them to interest anyone but the author. Or at the pages of rabid propaganda - whether political or commercial - which think the world owes them an audience.
These types are bad enough, but they don't pretend to be more than they are. Far worse are the sites which have decent information, claim to want to appeal to a broad audience, but then fail to deliver by making their information hard or impossible to navigate, or present it in a form likely to deter all but the most dogged user.
Every web user has been there, to a site that we know has the news report, virus warning, program download or software driver that we want. We have clicked on the links from most to least likely, used the site search engine and the site map, and then given up, totally frustrated.
The days when a typical user was an enthusiast, entranced by the new medium, are long over. Much activity on the Net is now task-oriented. People have a job to do and they want to do it online with a minimum of hassle. In an age when users, especially loyal repeat visitors, are the most valuable commodity on the Net it is extraordinary how many sites make them feel unwelcome.
Dr Jakob Nielsen, as he showed in his article last month in Computimes, has some stiff prescriptions for site managers. "Splash screens must die", "The best sites are fast" and "Keep your texts short" are some more axioms which serve as section headings in Designing Web Us- ability. Much of his book - which is generally blunt and often acerbic - articulates the frustration Web users feel. Many of his observations have the "but of course" quality of someone pointing out the obvious fact that was not at all obvious until it was neatly summed up.
Some of the advice, picked almost at random from the pages:
Keep texts short
Start each page with a conclusion
Stick to the standard colours of blue/purple for unvisited and visited links, respectively
Don't underline anything that is not a link
Keep old URLs working for two years after a site reorganisation
All websites are always under construction. There's no need for a little construction worker logo to tell people this
Avoid metaphors and leading-edge technologies. They are generally more trouble for the user than they're worth
Above all, see things from the user's perspective and keep it simple
The points above are just some examples from a book that is crammed full of good advice. Topics covered include page, content and site design, intranet creation, catering for users with disabilities and for an international audience. Under each of these headings is a range of forthright do and don't rules. Clay Andres has written a different type of book. Like Nielsen's, it is lavishly illustrated with colour examples, but only Nielsen would write a caption like: "An unpalatable example of shovelware from Time magazine. . . great example of why repurposing doesn't work."
Andres's text concentrates on the architecture of assembling a site, working mainly by showing and describing examples. Overall, the book is far more descriptive than prescriptive.
There some beautiful sample pages here, with a thoughtful commentary. After outlining the principles of website structure and navigation, Andres goes on to specific examples of Web architecture appropriate to information and marketing sites.
Alongside Andres's own commentary, he carries snippets from interviews with Web designers and developers. This gives a variety of voices, but also makes for a blander tone than Nielsen's book.
Despite their differences, just by their existence these two books make an important point - that this web business is no longer a new and experimental area. Already, clear ideas have emerged about structuring information, making it navigable and helping the user to make the best of it.
There is no longer any excuse for producing unusable websites.