Usability is often overlooked in web-site development, but this should not be allowed to continue, according to Jakob Nielsen of usability consultancy the Nielsen Norman Group. He says that during the early years of the web, between 1994 and 1999, those who advocated better usability were "roundly booed at internet conferences and ignored by the prevalent 'killer design' agencies".

This attitude resulted in embarrassment for some companies. Indifference to usability produced sites that were neither aesthetically pleasing nor functional. Nielsen points to the 1999 launch of online retailer Boo.com. "It was a clear usability disaster," he says. "The fact that users refused to shop at Boo.com was too glaring to be overlooked by even the most clueless dot-com analyst."

Many such analysts had argued that all that really mattered was the branding of web portals, and that it was not worth investing in ways to improve rankings on search results, says Nielsen.

Such attitudes harmed company revenues and gave the advantage to sites that were easier to use.

"On the web, people don't have to use bad sites," Nielsen explains.

Nielsen believes that many online companies are still struggling to come to terms with the results of their early mistakes. "Unfortunately, the damage done during the early years was so bad that four years of progress have been insufficient to bring us to an acceptable level," he says. "Basically, the first 10 years of commercial web sites were a lost decade with very few designs that truly worked for customers."

However, Nielsen is optimistic about the future. "The next 10 years will see the web become routinely integrated into everyday life, with mobile devices that actually work as advertised, and sites where people can find what they are looking for," he says. "We have only scratched the surface in terms of making the web useful and intranets productive."

Nielsen says he measured traffic at 42 sites where usability had been emphasised at the design stage and found that they performed 135 percent better on average.

"There is no reason we should continue to suffer the clumsy user experiences that currently dominate the web," he adds. "I am optimistic for the future. By 2014 the web may reach the level of user empowerment defined by the Macintosh in 1984. Web usability is improving, but at a snail's pace. However, as long as the snail is moving in the right direction, we should be happy, and that is exactly what's happening."

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