Jakob Nielsen: Don't give too much to social networks

09/08/2009

 
 Jakob Nielsen's blog, Alertbox, is the Web's most concerted effort going on designing sites for usability. His latest post identifies the risks of outsourcing content to social media. His advice: Keep the best to yourself and don't share too much with social networking sites.

"You might be handing them the keys to your kingdom," he writes.

It's a bit counterintuitive, given the arguments on spreading content widely and benefiting from the traffic that tracks back. But Nielsen argues that social networking sites stand to do the same as search engines --- take the content and reduce the value of the originating sites.

Nielsen suggests holding specialized content back and furnishing only broadly-based content to social networks.
 

How much do users read on a page?

05/25/2008

 

Jakob Nielsen is the acknowledged seer on Web usability, and his Alertbox site produces and collates some of the most interesting behavioural information on browsing.
In catching up to his latest annual usability report, which BBC News outlined this weekend, I came across this great fact: On average people read on average at most 28 per cent of the words on a page per visit. In fact, 20 per cent might be closer to the truth.
Nielsen cites research that articulates a formula for how much people read, and how much more they'll read as you add text to a page.
The research also indicates the Back button is dropping down the charts. It's now the Number Three Web page feature, down from Number Two, behind clicking hyperlinks and the new rising star, clicking buttons that go to new pages.
Nielsen notes that people are much more impatient than ever, that they are more familiar with design and functionality, and that it's a larger challenge than ever to get people to stay online with promotions and other attributes that try to keep their attention.

 
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