A List Apart

Author

Nick Usborne

Nick Usborne is an online writer, web page optimizer, author and coach. You can learn more about his work at nickusborne.com.

Entries by Nick Usborne

  • Design Choices Can Cripple a Website

    Issue 207 · 

    Do you test your designs? If not, Nick Usborne wants you to take responsibility for your design choices and the very quantifiable effect they can have on websites that are built for business.

  • Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction

    Issue 213 · 

    You want your users to do something, buy things, beg you to work for them, learn how they too can achieve inner peace. So how do you get them to do what you want? Try getting out of the way.

  • Helping Your Visitors: a State of Mind

    Issue 171 · 

    Even the simplest website is harder to figure out than a catalog or magazine. We all know how to “use” a catalog: start at the front cover and keep turning the pages. But with every new site we visit, we have to “learn” how it works, how its “pages” turn, how to find what we’re looking for. Text that takes visitors’ needs into account can help guide them through the maze.

  • A Fairy, a Low-Fat Bagel, and a Sack of Hammers

    Issue 162 · 

    Never underestimate the importance of words on the web.

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