How to Weave a More Useful Web

Nine of the ten Web sites you've looked at today stink.

That's the opinion of Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen and his consulting group, Nielsen Norman Group. The reason: 90 percent of Web sites are poorly designed and difficult to use. From animations that take far too long to download to outdated e-commerce sites and generally confusing layout, the Web needs a lot of work to live up to its potential.

The One-Click Approval

"The Internet is about usability," Nielsen said at a Web usability workshop Friday. "The computer industry has been able to ship difficult-to-use products because you buy first, and then you try to use it. With the Web, usability comes first, then you click to buy or become a return visitor."

To improve usability, Nielsen suggests Web sites consider what people actually do.

Part of the problem is response time. Nielsen cites a 1968 study on interactivity showing that response time must be less than one second for interactive content. But today, how often have you hit a site that took 15 seconds to download?

Far too many sites use fancy JavaScript animations on the opening splash page. Visitors must download a player application or cache a large file before they can get anywhere on the site. "Before you know the site is any good, you're hit with a half-minute download," Nielsen says.

Beyond opening pages, Nielsen contends that Flash animations and fancy graphics are misused across the Web.

"Animation is used as a blunt weapon," Nielsen says. You're hit with brand but no useful content. And animations increase page load time.

When Unique Isn't Good

Another problem: inconsistency. Many Web sites throw in confusing horizontal scroll bars or proprietary controls that differ from standard tools. If you don't know how the page works, it's likely that you'll click off the site.

Registration and pop-up windows can also kill your good feelings toward a site, Nielsen says. People don't trust sites to begin with and are skeptical even when providing information that could benefit them, he adds.

The answer: Web sites should be up front with you about how they're going to "get you." At least if a site tells you it will use your information to send you targeted promotions, you can make an informed decision, Nielsen says.

Sites can also gain trust through user ratings. Nielsen pointed to Epinions.com, where anyone can post a site review. Good reviews receive positive recommendations from customers and push up to the top of the list. Nielsen suggests that sites add a user-driven way to verify trustworthiness.

"TrustE icons," Nielsen states on the third-party authentication services, "are useless. No one understands what they mean."