Quiz: Nielsen's Chapters 1 and 2

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1. In Chapter 1, Nielsen says there are two possible approaches to Web design: the “artistic ideal of expressing yourself, and the engineering ideal of solving a problem for a customer.” (It’s obvious just from the word choice here which approach he’s advocating.)

All but one of the following are reasons for favoring the engineering approach, according to Nielsen. Which is not a reason that Nielsen gives?

You're in competition for the users' time and attention
Inspiration and creativity are obsolete in the digital economy
Main goal of the Web is to make it easy for customers to perform useful tasks
Design decisions should be based on "gathering real data from your customers" to see what works best

2. Also in Chapter 1, Nielsen describes six “fundamental errors” common in Web design. Generally, Nielsen says, these errors result from which one of the following?

People not really understanding the nature of HTML code
People creating Web projects based on their experience creating non-Web documents
People trying inappropriately to "get creative" with Web design
People misusing Dreamweaver or other WYSIWYG editing software

3. Nielsen’s Chapter 2 is very concerned with the principle of making efficient use of “screen real estate.” All but one of the following are techniques/principles for making efficient use of screen real estate. Which one is not a technique mentioned by Nielsen?

navigation should be kept below 20% of the page space
first screenful should be meaningful, download quickly
eliminate all whitespace possible
simplicity always wins

4. Nielsen has a number of suggestions for creating links on pages that are usable. Which of the following is one of Nielsen's suggestions for effective links?
longer, fully descriptive links that approach the length of sentences
using colors other than blue for links to make them stand out
using the complete URL as the primary linked text to give users information on the site (.com vs. .org, for example)
write your own link text, rather than using the title of the page you're linking to.

5. All but one of the following are techniques that Nielsen gives for making a faster-loading page. Which is not a recommendation from the Nielsen book?

reuse a "small visual vocabulary" of images
"remove graphic, increase traffic" (use media only when it adds to the user's understanding)
keep page sizes below 34K to help ensure a response time of less than 10 seconds
place images at the top of the page so they'll load first