The book begins with a briefing on Jakob's web usability principles,
themselves culled from years of research. The 50 sites fall under such
categories as Fortune 500 Sites, Highest-Traffic Sites, and E-Commerce Sites.
The content is simply presented: Four book pages are devoted to each
homepage. The first page is a clean screenshot of the site's homepage (for
readers to make their own, unbiased judgments), followed by a page that explains
the site's purpose and summarizes its success--or failure--at usabilty. The
third and fourth pages are devoted to crtiques, where Jakob and Marie present
no-holds-barred commentary for specific usability practices, as well as
suggestions for improvement. Although only the homepage of each site is
analyzed, many of the critiques can be applied to overall website
design.
Table of Contents
Preface.
The Role of the Homepage. The Organization of
This Book. Your Action Items. The Companion Web Pages.
Homepage Guidelines.
What's Not in These Guidelines. The Guidelines.
Communicating the Site's Purpose. Communicating Information About Your Company.
Content Writing. Revealing Content Through Examples. Archives and Accessing Past
Content. Links. Navigation. Search. Tools and Task Shortcuts. Graphics and
Animation. Graphic Design. UI Widgets. Window Titles. URLs. News and Press
Releases. Popup Windows and Staging Pages. Advertising. Welcomes. Communicating
Technical Problems and Handling Emergencies. Credits. Page Reload and Refresh.
Customization. Gathering Customer Data. Fostering Community. Dates and Times.
Stock Quotes and Displaying Numbers. Homepage Design Conventions.
Homepage Design Statistics.
Download Time. Basic Page Layout. Page Width.
Liquid Versus Frozen Layout. Page Length. Frames. Fundamental Page Design
Elements. Logo. Search. Navigation. Footer Navigation. Site Map. Routing Pages.
Splash Pages. Frequent Features. Sign In. About Us. Contact Info. Privacy
Policy. Job Openings. Help. Graphics and Multimedia. Pictures. ALT Text. Music.
Animation. Advertising. Typography. Body Text and Background Colors. Link
Formatting. Recommended Homepage Design.
Sites.
About http://www.about.com. Accenture
http://www.accenture.com. Amazon http://www.amazon.com. The Art Institute of
Chicago http://www.artic.edu. Asia Cuisine http://www.asiacuisine.com.sg. Barnes
& Noble http://www.bn.com. BBC Online http://www.bbc.co.uk. Boeing
http://www.boeing.com. CDNOW http://www.cdnow.com. Citigroup
http://www.citigroup.com. CNET http://www.cnet.com. CNNfn cnnfn.cnn.com. Coles
http://www.coles.com.au. DIRECTV http://www.directv.com. Disney
http://www.disney.com. Drugstore http://www.drugstore.com. eBay
http://www.ebay.com. eMagazineshop http://www.emagazineshop.com. ESPN
http://www.espn.com. ExxonMobil http://www.exxon.mobil.com. FedEx
http://www.fedex.com/us. Federal Highway Administration http://www.fhwa.dot.gov.
Florida Department of Revenue http://www.sun6.dms.state.fl.us/dor. Ford Motor
Company http://www.ford.com. Gateway http://www.gateway.com. General Electric
http://www.ge.com. General Motors http://www.gm.com. Global Sources
http://www.globalsources.com. IBM http://www.ibm.com. James Devaney Fuel Company
http://www.jamesdevaneyfuel.com. JobMagic http://www.jobmagic.net. Learn2
http://www.learn2.com. Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com. MotherNature
http://www.mothernature.com. MTV http://www.mtv.com. NewScientist
http://www.newscientist.com. NewsNow http://www.newsnow.co.uk. PBS
http://www.pbs.org. Petsmart http://www.petsmart.com. Philip Morris
http://www.philipmorris.com. PlanetRx http://www.planetrx.com. Red Herring
http://www.redherring.com. Slusser's Green Thumb http://www.slussers.com.
Southwest http://www.southwest.com. Ticketmaster http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Travelocity http://www.travelocity.com. USA Today http://www.usatoday.com.
Victoria's Secret http://www.victoriassecret.com. Wal-Mart
http://www.walmart.com. Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com.
Appendix.
Index.