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The format is extremely good. He makes extensive comments on 50 examples of home pages, both positive and critical. This allows him to really stretch out — you begin to get a good look what years of rigorous usability testing has shown him. The fact that concrete examples (from some VERY familiar websites) are right there makes it very easy to grasp his many points.
I have the feeling I'll be reading and re-reading this one for many years.
So far I have only one criticism — and it's a usability issue! This book is an oversized trade paperback. The proportions of the book make it awkward to carry around, and I often do my reading in the spare moments when I'm out and about. It's even awkward just to hold, and I find that I need to read it from a table top.
But then again, in a smaller format, the layout would probably not work very well. Whether it's books or websites, there's always a trade-off.
ISBN 0-7897-2310-7
The book definitely seems to borrow heavily from Krug's amazing Don't make me think! I'd definitely recommend Krug's book first.
Aside, one of the funniest things about the conference was it's 'usability'. A whole troop of delegates (including me) were lost and couldn't find our lecture. The signposting was wholly awful and nobody seemed to know where it was - we kept being redirected back to reception. Where's the usability in that?*
My gripe aside the Web Design lectures I attended were excellent and hopefully will prove really useful. The lecturers, Jeff Veen and Janice Cotty Fraser of adaptive-path were inspiringly enthusiastic and full of real world examples to back up their concepts.
There's still a date in Sydney (June 2002) if anyone's interested: [nngroup.com...]
*I got to meet Jakob when he joined our table for lunch. He asked how the conference could be improved and I told him about the poor signage (many people thought it was some kind of test, it was that bad) etc.. He seemed to take the criticism well. Also - he's a really nice guy, not the evil usability wizard I imagined him to be;).
