Though its purpose is to target web design guidelines for government websites, this publication has long been a resource for everyone.

Download free: Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines to view and print Guidelines Book by section

or buy the print version at the US Gov Bookstore for $25 US

This resource now contains 209 guidelines for effective Web design and usability and covers a wide range of Web site design issues, including home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and images, Web content organization, and effective Web content writing. Each guideline includes a “Strength of Evidence” rating that indicates how much research there is to support that guideline. It also includes a “Relative Importance” rating that shows how important that guideline is to the overall success of a Web site.

Jakob Nielsen has co-authored a new book with usability consultant, Hoa Loranger, called Prioritizing Web Usability. It is available for shipping now from Amazon.

The Table of Contents is extensive. What caught my eye, however, is Chapter Five, which is called “Search”. They present both the search engine results side, as well as the search engine optimization side. Included are sections called “Black-Hat SEO Tricks”, “Keyword Overuse Backfires”, “How Search Engines Determine a Site’s Reputation” and “Architectural SEO”. It’s interesting how the relationship between SEO/M and usability continues to intertwine.

For the user centered design angle, the usual suspects are covered such as information architecture and navigation (example: “Match the Site Structure to User Expectations”), writing for the web (example: “Summarize Key Points and Pare Down”), typography, creating product pages, page elements, (example: “Should You Design for Scrolling?”), usability findings and handling multi-media. Plus more. It’s 406 pages in all.

Prioritizing Web Usability comes in paperback. Amazon is listing it for $31.50.

“The best-selling usability guru is back and has revisited his classic guide, joined forces with Web usability consultant Hoa Loranger, and created an updated companion book that covers the essential changes to the Web and usability today. Prioritizing Web Usability is the guide for anyone who wants to take their Web site(s) to next level and make usability a priority! Through the authors’ wisdom, experience, and hundreds of real-world user tests and contemporary Web site critiques, you’ll learn about site design, user experience and usability testing, navigation and search capabilities, old guidelines and prioritizing usability issues, page design and layout, content design, and more!” — Source, Amazon’s Editorial Review