Jakob Nielsen reports in his Alertbox that breadcrumbs used for navigation are becoming more useful.

He states the following reasons:

• Breadcrumbs show people their current location relative to higher-level concepts, helping them understand where they are in relation to the rest of the site.
• Breadcrumbs afford one-click access to higher site levels and thus rescue users who parachute into very specific but inappropriate destinations through search or deep links.
• Breadcrumbs never cause problems in user testing: people might overlook this small design element, but they never misinterpret breadcrumb trails or have trouble operating them.
• Breadcrumbs take up very little space on the page.

He concludes that although some people ignore them, for the visitors who do look for them and use them they add to a favourable usability experience.

As I’ve long argued, breadcrumbs are different than most other little-used design elements for the simple reason that they don’t hurt users who ignore them.

Read complete article http://www.useit.com/alertbox/breadcrumbs.html

NetLife Research created an interesting Bad Usability Calendar 2007 showcasing some examples of how not to be usable. There is also a PDF version available to print and hang in your office.

Why would you abandon an order when shopping online?
WebCredible reports that hidden charges (36%) are the biggest reason while shoppers abandon their shopping cart online. The second most annoying shopping cart trade is forcing people to register (31%) before being able to complete the order.

IN real estate, a picture can be worth more than a thousand words. Much, much more. When selling properties online, agents and Web designers say that the pictures buyers see of houses and apartments for sale are often the first — and sometimes the only — chance for a seller to make a good impression. Less-than-flattering pictures can turn buyers off and lead to lonely open houses.

Read full article: NY Times: Making Every Pixel Count