此篇來自于尼爾森最新的Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design，在2007年的升級中，尼爾森再次提出了十大網(wǎng)站設(shè)計錯誤。分別是：

1. Bad Search　

Overly literal search engines reduce usability in that they're unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms. Such search engines are particularly difficult for elderly users, but they hurt everybody.

A related problem is when search engines prioritize results purely on the basis of how many query terms they contain, rather than on each document's importance. Much better if your search engine calls out "best bets" at the top of the list -- especially for important queries, such as the names of your products.

Search is the user's lifeline when navigation fails. Even though advanced search can sometimes help, simple search usually works best, and search should be presented as a simple box, since that's what users are looking for.

注：以下內(nèi)容并不是翻譯
壞的搜索。尼爾森開始質(zhì)疑起了搜索引擎，近年來的搜索引擎的確做的很火，往往你搜索到一個關(guān)健詞，搜索引擎按輕重緩急安排搜索結(jié)果時，確勿略了可用性。這里尼爾森舉到了產(chǎn)品的例子，比如我想搜索的我自己的產(chǎn)品，但無關(guān)緊要的關(guān)健字卻排在了第一位。這的確是很失望的事情，想找重要的東西找不著。那么如果把重要的東西排在前面，即改變搜索引擎的機器算法，人工操作改善可用性。那是否背離的搜索引擎的原則？

2. PDF Files for Online Reading

Users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing, because it breaks their flow. Even simple things like printing or saving documents are difficult because standard browser commands don't work. Layouts are often optimized for a sheet of paper, which rarely matches the size of the user's browser window. Bye-bye smooth scrolling. Hello tiny fonts.

Worst of all, PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content that's hard to navigate.

PDF is great for printing and for distributing manuals and other big documents that need to be printed. Reserve it for this purpose and convert any information that needs to be browsed or read on the screen into real web pages.

注：以下內(nèi)容并不是翻譯
在線閱讀PDF文檔。這個不得不說是“流氓行為”，尼爾森認為在線閱讀中斷了用戶的流程，可能用戶就只是打印或下載文檔。我是極為反感adobe的這種方式，但無疑，這也是一種給PDF格式的流行鋪開道路的途徑。你可以認為方式這種是當(dāng)年的hao123，現(xiàn)在轉(zhuǎn)正為百度了。

3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links

A good grasp of past navigation helps you understand your current location, since it's the culmination of your journey. Knowing your past and present locations in turn makes it easier to decide where to go next. Links are a key factor in this navigation process. Users can exclude links that proved fruitless in their earlier visits. Conversely, they might revisit links they found helpful in the past.
Most important, knowing which pages they've already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again.

These benefits only accrue under one important assumption: that users can tell the difference between visited and unvisited links because the site shows them in different colors. When visited links don't change color, users exhibit more navigational disorientation in usability testing and unintentionally revisit the same pages repeatedly.

注：以下內(nèi)容并不是翻譯
不改變訪問過后的鏈接顏色，這個問題不想說了，目前的網(wǎng)易首頁這一點做的相當(dāng)好。

4. Non-Scannable Text

A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read.
Write for online, not print. To draw users into the text and support scannability, use well-documented tricks:

subheads
bulleted lists
highlighted keywords
short paragraphs
the inverted pyramid
a simple writing style, and
de-fluffed language devoid of marketese.

不能掃視的文本。這點尼爾森在書中多次提過，用戶是在“掃”文字，而不是“閱讀”文字，對措辭控制是一個基本功。

5. Fixed Font Size

CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser's "change font size" button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.
Respect the user's preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms -- not as an absolute number of pixels.

固定字體大小。CSS可以控制字體的小大，我們大多在使用這一點使文字變?yōu)楹每吹乃误w9px，但忽略了超過40歲用戶的感受。同時也禁止掉了瀏覽器的“改變字體大小”的功能。我老爸一直問我，這個站文字太小了，在看到不能改變的時候，我只能告訴老爸使用Maxthon的放大頁面功能。

#p#

5. Fixed Font Size

CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser's "change font size" button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.
Respect the user's preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms -- not as an absolute number of pixels.

固定字體大小。CSS可以控制字體的小大，我們大多在使用這一點使文字變?yōu)楹每吹乃误w9px，但忽略了超過40歲用戶的感受。同時也禁止掉了瀏覽器的“改變字體大小”的功能。我老爸一直問我，這個站文字太小了，在看到不能改變的時候，我只能告訴老爸使用Maxthon的放大頁面功能。

6. Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility

Search is the most important way users discover websites. Search is also one of the most important ways users find their way around individual websites. The humble page title is your main tool to attract new visitors from search listings and to help your existing users to locate the specific pages that they need.
The page title is contained within the HTML

Page titles are also used as the default entry in the Favorites when users bookmark a site. For your homepage, begin the with the company name, followed by a brief description of the site. Don't start with words like "The" or "Welcome to" unless you want to be alphabetized under "T" or "W."

For other pages than the homepage, start the title with a few of the most salient information-carrying words that describe the specifics of what users will find on that page. Since the page title is used as the window title in the browser, it's also used as the label for that window in the taskbar under Windows, meaning that advanced users will move between multiple windows under the guidance of the first one or two words of each page title. If all your page titles start with the same words, you have severely reduced usability for your multi-windowing users.

Taglines on homepages are a related subject: they also need to be short and quickly communicate the purpose of the site.

低搜索引擎可視性的頁面標題。這一句翻譯的不好，講的是SEO的相關(guān)問題，但我認為也是措辭的問題，簡潔的能讓用戶一眼就明白即可。

7. Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement

Selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation. (The main exception being text-only search-engine ads.)
Unfortunately, users also ignore legitimate design elements that look like prevalent forms of advertising. After all, when you ignore something, you don't study it in detail to find out what it is.

Therefore, it is best to avoid any designs that look like advertisements. The exact implications of this guideline will vary with new forms of ads; currently follow these rules:

banner blindness means that users never fixate their eyes on anything that looks like a banner ad due to shape or position on the page
animation avoidance makes users ignore areas with blinking or flashing text or other aggressive animations
pop-up purges mean that users close pop-up windoids before they have even fully rendered; sometimes with great viciousness (a sort of getting-back-at-GeoCities triumph).

任何東西都看起來向廣告。可用性和商業(yè)還是有沖突的，當(dāng)我們拋開商業(yè)模式談廣告，這是一門學(xué)問。這里探討的是如何把廣告變的更好的問題，我聽說yahoo的廣告是按點擊率來算業(yè)績的，我想，未來國內(nèi)也是這樣，很可能會加上一點，用戶體驗更爽。但至少目前的廣告不應(yīng)該是兩幀或三幀閃來閃去。

8. Violating Design Conventions

Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don't have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That's good.
The more users' expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel insecure. Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a mile into the sky.

Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience states that "users spend most of their time on other websites."

This means that they form their expectations for your site based on what's commonly done on most other sites. If you deviate, your site will be harder to use and users will leave.

違反設(shè)計習(xí)慣。這里尼爾森談的是繼承的問題，我相信老大在深圳UPA會上的講話，比如：QQ的消息聲音是不能改變的。這就是一個習(xí)慣的問題，已經(jīng)有先前的習(xí)慣了，違反這個習(xí)慣是要負出代價的，當(dāng)然，如果你有足夠的資金的化當(dāng)我沒說。前一段也有小案例，一個朋友把網(wǎng)站首頁放到瀏覽器的右邊了，我說這樣的突破太大，很多用戶會找不到的。這是一個設(shè)計習(xí)慣，也是一個用戶習(xí)慣的問題。

9. Opening New Browser Windows

Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management).
Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user's machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the Back button which is the normal way users return to previous sites. Users often don't notice that a new window has opened, especially if they are using a small monitor where the windows are maximized to fill up the screen. So a user who tries to return to the origin will be confused by a grayed out Back button.

Links that don't behave as expected undermine users' understanding of their own system. A link should be a simple hypertext reference that replaces the current page with new content. Users hate unwarranted pop-up windows. When they want the destination to appear in a new page, they can use their browser's "open in new window" command -- assuming, of course, that the link is not a piece of code that interferes with the browser抯 standard behavior.

打開新瀏覽器窗口。這個問題不想多說，各個業(yè)務(wù)是不同的，應(yīng)該是有區(qū)分的，但在流程中不應(yīng)該打開新窗口，這個是中斷了用戶的流程。

10. Not Answering Users' Questions

Users are highly goal-driven on the Web. They visit sites because there's something they want to accomplish -- maybe even buy your product. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.
Sometimes the answer is simply not there and you lose the sale because users have to assume that your product or service doesn't meet their needs if you don't tell them the specifics. Other times the specifics are buried under a thick layer of marketese and bland slogans. Since users don't have time to read everything, such hidden info might almost as well not be there.

The worst example of not answering users' questions is to avoid listing the price of products and services. No B2C ecommerce site would make this mistake, but it's rife in B2B, where most "enterprise solutions" are presented so that you can't tell whether they are suited for 100 people or 100,000 people. Price is the most specific piece of info customers use to understand the nature of an offering, and not providing it makes people feel lost and reduces their understanding of a product line. We have miles of videotape of users asking "Where's the price?" while tearing their hair out.

Even B2C sites often make the associated mistake of forgetting prices in product lists, such as category pages or search results. Knowing the price is key in both situations; it lets users differentiate among products and click through to the most relevant ones.

不回答用戶的問題。最痛心的是這一點，有時候并不是可用性的問題，商業(yè)上不能做，不能告訴用戶的觀念占據(jù)了很大的程度。尼爾森在這里列舉了購買產(chǎn)品的例子，在產(chǎn)品的頁面中，用戶往往不能完全了解產(chǎn)品，沒有把握住用戶的心理是最失敗的部分。我常和同事說flickr在刪除相冊夾有一個很好的提示，對心理抓的很準，而更巧妙的是，這個提示在操作中完成。

尼爾林從一九九六年就開始在alertbox里寫Top ten，有興趣的可以看下以前的內(nèi)容。