Critique du Library Journal

Spool and his buddies are usability engineers; they study how folks use computers. For the past couple of years, they have paid a lot of attention to how people use webbed interfaces for navigation and searching. Their research is counterintuitive to many design dictates, but it is well substantiated. Contrary to popular opinion, people do like information-dense sites, they do like long pages, and they will scroll forever as long as the page is designed to encourage scrolling. This is applied research at its best. Clearly written and well illustrated, the book allows users to put the findings to work for them. This book is required reading for anyone designing webbed interfaces for libraries and an essential purchase for all but the smallest public libraries. Additional information from the researchers can be found at (world.std.com/~uieweb). (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.