I recently read a book on Web Usability by Steve Krug titled "Don’t make me think - a common sense approach to Web Usability"

Though I have been in the WCM space for several years, and thought I professed all the do’s and don’ts of the web, especially on web interface patterns (http://www.welie.com/patterns/) and designing outcomes based on statistical analysis such as A/B testing, Multivariate testing and all its statistical variants like Taguchi method for better user conversions, with this one was really a refreshing read.

The book just goes into the basics and encourages sticking to conventions when it comes to web-design, because people are familiar with well applied conventions. They need less time to react or make the next click - similar to good street signs.

I have seen many home pages cluttered with so much content... company's brands, teasers, promos, deals, twitter feeds, comments, videos, dynamic content, acknowledgments etc.,that it becomes truly confusing for a visitor trying to navigate through the site.  Try searching for the supported JDK versions for IBM WebSphere Application Server V7 and you will know what I mean.

Steve advocates web testing early on in the design process and suggests an optimal team of 3 to 4 users for round of testing. If a page is well designed, then a user must be able to answer the following questions without any hesitation, and must be able to do this after being led to a page blindfolded without being given the context or intent of the test.

• What site is this? (Site Id)

• What page am I on? (Page Name)

• What are the major sections on this site? (Sections)

• What are my options at this level? (Local Navigation)

• Where am I in the scheme of things? (You are here indicators - breadcrumbs)

• How can I search?

Short and lucidly written for non-technical business folks, yet very informative book - can be read in a few hours.