Web Site Usability Handbook

Rating:
Summary: very easy read
Review: I loved this book. I am a new psychology PhD looking to get into web usability consulting and this book was perfect for me. I have not read other books on the topic but i can say that I am glad I found this one. It was a very easy read, and i really learned a lot. I like how it takes a psychological viewpoint much of the time. I also really like how he sets you up 100% to be a usability tester. He tells you everything you need to know from A-Z with very little budget. He is also very generous giving away all his secrets and a CD rom that has all sorts of pre-made forms to get you started (powerpoint presentation on usability to show clients, informed consent forms for experimental participants etc...). Now I feel i am ready to read something more technical.

Rating:
Summary: A Needed Resource
Review: Many websites you surf into these days seem less than user-unfriendly--they seem openly user-hostile. If more web site designers made themselves more knowledgeable about usability in their design, everyone would benefit.

This book is a great introduction to web site usability. I've been interested in learning more about this subject but haven't been able to find a book (other than Jakob Nielsen's recent work) that puts all the pieces together. This book does that. The parts I found most useful were the chapter on "usability tools" and the chapters on heuristic evaluation and classical usability testing. The chapters on statistics and research design were a little on the elementary side for anyone with research or statistical background, but I can see how someone new to the topic could benefit.

The author has rather a strange sense of humor, but this keeps the material interesting--and let's face it, without a sense of humor this is pretty dry stuff. It's refreshing to read someone willing to crack a smile or give the reader a wink in such a usually arid subject. I highly recommend Pearrow's book to both novice and intermediate web site designers.

Rating:
Summary: Academic in the worst sense.
Review: The author states that the book was created as a text for his class and it certainly reads like a textbook. For a book that is about usability, the text is almost unreadably tedious at times. (e.g. "...the first step toward Web site usability is to figure out the main goals of your Web site. For labeling purposes we will call these 'goals of the purpose.'") Each of the points in the book is better made and illustrated in other texts (Krug - "Don't Make Me Think" is good). The attempts to lighten the subject with gratuitous cartoons and humor were more irritating than amusing.

Rating:
Summary: More then I expected
Review: Though it's probably most helpful for newcomers to usability (I refuse to say "user experience"), this little gem of a handbook may also be quite helpful to more experienced u-pros, in that it provides a very approachable, clear and cogent discussion of usability, common usability techniques, how and when to apply them, etc., that could be shared with non-usability colleagues (or quoted from) to educate them about usability. It's greatest strength is its practicality. I wish I'd had this book four years ago. Although I don't agree with every point Pearrow makes, my hat's off to him for the contribution he's made to the field. If you only recommend one usability book this year, this is the one.