Salary Trends for Usability Professionals

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for May 8 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/salaries.html
	
Summary:
Over the last several years, entry-level salaries have dropped, while
pay for experienced usability staff has been more stable.

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NEW BOOK

My new book, "Prioritizing Web Usability," is now shipping from the online
bookstores. I wrote it with my colleague Hoa Loranger with two main goals:

a) To update my usability guidelines from the 1990s and present the newest
data about user behavior patterns on the Web.

b) To collect the most important usability findings from our recent
studies in a single volume. Yes, we now have thousands of documented
guidelines, but what are the most important ones that everybody needs to
know? The book reports the user research data we used to prioritize the
guidelines (thus the book title).

406 pages (heavily illustrated, of course). Full table of contents:

  > http://www.useit.com/prioritizing

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Usability Week 2006 conference

  > London, May 21-26
  > San Francisco, June 19-24
  > Sydney, July 16-21

In-depth training:
  > 3-day Intensive Camp: Usability in Practice
  > 3-day Immersion: Tog on Interaction Design

10 specialized full-day tutorials

More info and full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

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Usability of Government Websites

The Government Accountability Office is the "watchdog" agency of the
United States Congress that evaluates the performance of the rest of the
government. A recent GAO report analyzed the usability of a major agency's
communication efforts, including its brochures, call center, and website.
It is good to see Congress care about usability.

  > http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-06-654