May 15th, 2010 
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Product Description
Although recent findings show the public increasingly interacting with government Web sites, a common problem is that people can’t find what they’re looking for. In other words, the sites lack usability. The Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines aid in correcting this problem by providing the latest Web design guidance from the research and other forms of evidence. This unique publication has been updated from its earlier version to include over 40 new or updated research guidelines, bringing the total to 209. Primary audiences for the book are: Web managers, designers, and all staff involved in the creation of Web sites. Topics in the book include: home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and images, effective Web content writing, and search. A new section on usability testing guidance has been added. Experts from across government, industry, and academia have reviewed and contributed to the development of the Guidelines. And, since their introduction in 2003, the Guidelines have been widely used by government, private, and academic institutions to improve Web design.
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Please read the entire review — important information at the end!
This review reflects the first edition, which I have had a chance to read. But, I want to direct this review to potential customers of the revised edition.
In the rapidly changing world of Web design, much valued current information is passed on informally rather than in written form — as this becomes dated so quickly.
However, web usability is so critical to the success of a website, guides such as this are valuable for those who need to start somewhere.
This is probably the most comprehensive list in print of usability issues. There are few surprises here, but thoughtful comments do spur reflection on practice.
The most significant value is that it provides a checklist for review for the beginning or intermediate developer.
Chapters include:
Design Process and Evaluation
Optimizing the User Experience
Accessibility
Hardward and Software
The Hompage
Page Layout
Navigation
Scrolling and Paging
Headings, Titles and Labels
Links
Text Appearance
Lists
Screen-based Controls
Graphics, Images and Multimedia
Writing Web Content
Content Organization
Search
Within, there are over 200 guidelines. Each guideline is also graded on a 1-5 scale for “Relative Importance” and “Strength of Evidence.” To be honest, this attempt at objectivity provides truly odd results (it all depends who you talk to, doesn’t it?) and may safely be disregarded.
The content was originally developed by the NCI — National Cancer Institute in response to the e-Government act of 2002 to provide a standard for Federal, in particular, and all website design, in general.
So, that’s the focus you’ll find here. Large, content rich, government sites are used as examples. And, the guidelines, even though they sometimes strive to rise above, are best when they deal with the nitty gritty details and features of HTML.
You’ll not find guidelines looking forward to newer interfaces. It doesn’t represent current thinking on usability — more holistic in approach. Nor should this really be used as the only book for web usability. A text such as “Don’t Make Me Think”, “Designing the Obvious”, or the like should really be the cornerstone of one’s efforts to provide an overall grasp of human interaction on the web.
When I purchased the 2004 version, I was unaware of the more recent. When I stumbled across the update at a cost of over $[...] for 200 pages, for a book written at public expense, I was surprised and saddened.
Fortunately, if you need to add this to your library, you can purchase the latest version directly from Uncle Sam for 25 bucks at: [...]
Happy usability!
Rating: 4 / 5