Tutorial: 2. Introduction To Web Design

Jakob Nielsen, Sun Microsystems

Benefits
You will learn how to design compelling, easy to use, well-structured and attractive Web sites, as well as simple and efficient methods for testing Web sites for usability.

Origins
This tutorial was highly attended at CHI 96 and CHI 97. Earlier versions were also presented at the World Wide Web Consortium's WWW'4, WWW'5 and WWW'6 conferences.

Features

• understand customer-centric Web design
• learn how to
  • conduct competitive usability analysis of other sites
  • use card sorting to discover users' mental model of the information space
  • conduct user testing of Web designs
  • test early designs with paper prototypes
  • perform icon intuitiveness testing
  • redesign a Web site
  • designing for an international audience
• guidelines for usable Web design

Audience
Anyone responsible for authoring, designing and managing Web sites. Anyone with prior experience with the Web who understands the basic nature of Web pages.

Presentation
Lecture and small-group activities.

Instructor
Jakob Nielsen is a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer. He was the user interface lead for the redesign of Sun's WWW pages, co-designed Sun's Intranet and has contributed to user interfaces for several other Web projects, online services and pre-Web hypertexts. Dr. Nielsen's most recent book is Designing Exceptional Websites: Secrets of an information Architect (New Riders, November 1997). Other books include Multimedia and Hypertext: the Internet and Beyond, Usability Engineering, Usability Inspection Methods (with Robert L. Mack) and International User Interfaces (with Elisa del Galdo).

Related Tutorials

• 6. Java-Based User Interface Design and Development (Sunday)
• 15. Web Site Design From the Trenches (Sunday)
• 24. Web Sites that Work: Designing with Your Eyes Open (Monday)
• 36. Current Issues in Web Design (Monday evening)