The Web in 1994

I linked to this a couple of years ago, but happened across it today and thought I’d show it again. This is from Jakob Nielsen on his useit.com site: “Report From a 1994 Web Usability Study”.

The report is of some historical interest, both because it includes screen captures of several famous early websites and because it is one of the first formal usability studies of the Web. In fact, it is remarkable how well the findings and conclusions in this report hold up in the light of the current state of the Web. People often talk about how the Web changes on “Internet time”, but usability issues seem to change much more slowly since they stem from human capabilities and interests.