[Web4lib] Nielsen's Top 10 - 2005 version

[Thomas Dowling]

I didn't see this posted yet.  Jakob Nielsen has written up his 2005 
version of the "Top Ten Web Design Mistakes" at 
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html>.  This version is 
largely derived from comments his readers provided.

Longtime Web4Libbers will recall that earlier versions of this list have 
done a lot to arm usability-minded librarians against Kewl Deeziners 
their institutions may have accidentally put in charge of the web site.

The current list:

  Legibility - including bad fonts (too much Verdana everywhere, IMO),
    and small/frozen font sizes
  Non-standard links - make it obvious what's a link, don't use
    Javascript for links, etc.
  Flash - "...at the main Flash developer conference, almost everybody
    agreed that past excesses should be abandoned and that Flash's
    future was in providing useful user interfaces"
  Content that's not written for the web
  Bad search - "search is a fundamental component...and is getting
    more important every year"
  Browser incompatibility - due to increasing non-ubiquity of IE
  Cumbersome forms - too many, too long, unneeded questions, etc.
  Lack of contact info
  Frozen layouts/fixed page widths - too narrow for hi-res displays
    and/or too wide for printing
  Inadequate photo enlargement - "click to enlarge" leads to images
    that aren't enlarged enough, especially for hi-res displays

There's a note that, just based on reader response, the last item would 
have been an anti-popup item, but that's been covered many times already.

Just IMO, a lot of the page design errors here become obvious when you 
get a hi-res monitor (i.e. what a current basic system comes with) and a 
browser that can enforce a minimum font size friendly to middle-aged eyes.

-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu