Rating: 
Summary: If you only own one Usability book, this should be it...
Review: Including arguments supported by academic research, Nielsen's information-packed volume sheds light on THE important design issues. Every minute spent reading this book is a minute your users will appreciate.
Rating: 
Summary: A good background book for Human Factors Engineers
Review: One of the best ways I judge whether a book is useful for me or not, is to look through the Table of Contents. So here it is:I apologize for the format. The space allowed for comments makes it impossible to put this in true outline format. The Table of Contents PREFACE Audience,Teaching Usability Engineering, Acknowledgements 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cost savings, Usability Now!, Usability Slogans, Discount Usability Engineering, Recipe for Action 2. WHAT IS USABILITY Usability and other considerations, Definition of Usability, Example: Measuring the Usability of Icons, Usability Trade-Offs, Categories of Users and Individual User Differences, 3. Generations of User Interfaces, Batch Systems, Line-Oriented Interfaces, Full-Screen Interfaces, Graphical User Interfaces, Next-Generation Interfaces Long term trends in Usability 4. THE USABILITY ENGINEERING LIFECYCLE Know the User,Competitive analysis, Goal setting, Parallel Design, Participatory Design, Coordinating the total Inteface, Guidelines and Heuristic evaluation, Prototyping, Interface Evaluation, Iterative design, Follow up studies of Installed systems, Meta-Methods, Prioritizing Usability Activities, Be Prepared 5. USABILITY HEURISTICS Simple and Natural Dialogue, Speak the Users Language, Minimize User Memory Load, Consistency, Feedback, Clearly Marked exits, Shortcuts, Good Error Messages, Prevent Errors, Help and Documentation, Heuristic Evaluation 6. USABILITY TESTING Test Goals and Test plans, Getting Test users, Choosing Experimenters, Ethical Aspects of Tests with Human Subjects, Test Tasks, Stages of a test, Performance Measurement, Thinking Aloud, Usability Laboratories 7. USABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODS BEYOND TESTING Observation, Questionnaires and Interviews, Focus Groups, Logging Actual use, User Feedback, Choosing Usability methods 8. INTERFACE STANDARDS National, International and Vendor Standards, Producing Usable In-House Standards, International User Interfaces 9. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Theoretical Solutions, Technological solutions, CAUSE tools: Computer aided usability engineering' Technology Transfer This book was required reading for a Human Factors class I took. I found it to be a good quick coverage of some basic human factors principles. Additionally, it had good coverage of the practical aspects as well. Some of the information is now dated but the basics still hold.
Rating:
Summary: A good background book for Human Factors Engineers
Review: One of the best ways I judge whether a book is useful for me or not, is to look through the Table of Contents. So here it is: I apologize for the format. The space allowed for comments makes it impossible to put this in true outline format. The Table of Contents PREFACE Audience,Teaching Usability Engineering, Acknowledgements 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cost savings, Usability Now!, Usability Slogans, Discount Usability Engineering, Recipe for Action 2. WHAT IS USABILITY Usability and other considerations, Definition of Usability, Example: Measuring the Usability of Icons, Usability Trade-Offs, Categories of Users and Individual User Differences, 3. Generations of User Interfaces, Batch Systems, Line-Oriented Interfaces, Full-Screen Interfaces, Graphical User Interfaces, Next-Generation Interfaces Long term trends in Usability 4. THE USABILITY ENGINEERING LIFECYCLE Know the User,Competitive analysis, Goal setting, Parallel Design, Participatory Design, Coordinating the total Inteface, Guidelines and Heuristic evaluation, Prototyping, Interface Evaluation, Iterative design, Follow up studies of Installed systems, Meta-Methods, Prioritizing Usability Activities, Be Prepared 5. USABILITY HEURISTICS Simple and Natural Dialogue, Speak the Users Language, Minimize User Memory Load, Consistency, Feedback, Clearly Marked exits, Shortcuts, Good Error Messages, Prevent Errors, Help and Documentation, Heuristic Evaluation 6. USABILITY TESTING Test Goals and Test plans, Getting Test users, Choosing Experimenters, Ethical Aspects of Tests with Human Subjects, Test Tasks, Stages of a test, Performance Measurement, Thinking Aloud, Usability Laboratories 7. USABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODS BEYOND TESTING Observation, Questionnaires and Interviews, Focus Groups, Logging Actual use, User Feedback, Choosing Usability methods 8. INTERFACE STANDARDS National, International and Vendor Standards, Producing Usable In-House Standards, International User Interfaces 9. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Theoretical Solutions, Technological solutions, CAUSE tools: Computer aided usability engineering' Technology Transfer This book was required reading for a Human Factors class I took. I found it to be a good quick coverage of some basic human factors principles. Additionally, it had good coverage of the practical aspects as well. Some of the information is now dated but the basics still hold.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must-have for all software developers.
Review: Over the past 10 years only a few programming books have made it onto my 'must have' list. Usability Engineering is near the top. Jakob Nielsen's style is humorous and exact. More good advice could hardly be packed into one volume than you will find here.
Rating:
Summary: The standard
Review: Simply the standard on usability engineering.
Buy this one first.
Rating: 
Summary: Detailed ToC online
Review: The basic philosophy of the book is YOU CAN DO IT! It is about cheap and fast methods that anybody can use in any interface design project (whether Web design, software design, or gadget design) to drastically improve usability. It is quite common to be able to cut users' learning time in half (thus cutting your training budget or support center costs by a similar amount).
Rating: 
Summary: "Do what I say, not what I do!"
Review: The title I use is an old portuguese proverb. It is a good description of this book. In page 115 it says: "User interfaces should be simplified as much as possible,...". And then it takes almost 8 pages to explain it. Read it. His advices are pure gold. But don't build your user interface like this book was built: overcrowded with unnecessary details. There's another funny thing about this book. It's about design, mostly graphical. But doesn't talk to much about "creativity".
Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer
Review: This book is not perfect, but some of the critique is a bit too harsh. The book is not verbose, it is just user friendly =). I mean, really, the book is a breeze to read, it is clear and not once was I unsure about anything it said. There is only a little more than 250 pages of actual text to read. Then there are excercises which I found helpful. Then there's a long list of references, which some people may find helpful when trying to find more information. The most incredible part of the book, in my opinion, is the chapter on inexpensive usability engineering methods, that can easily be adapted by small companies without large budgets. They are really worth reading the book! I believe everyone who wants a career in UI design should read this book first, before proceeding further. Those who are not usability engineers per se, will get all they need from this book (about interface-design), the UI pros will probably want to read other material too, but this is the place to start. I would give 4.5 stars if possible. The book is not perfect. But I gave 5 stars to help the average rise a bit... ...hopefully.
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