The US Department of Health and Human Services has released the 2006 edition of Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines. This book is a valuable tool for Web designers and editors. It was prepared by leading usability researchers and contains sections devoted to best practices for:
•Process and evaluation.
•Page layout.
•Navigation.
•Links.
•Content organization.
•Search.
•Usability testing.
Each section is divided into various best practices. Each of these patterns is less than a page and contains valuable comments, examples, and a list of references. Most importantly, each pattern is rated in terms of both relative importance for design and the strength of research evidence supporting the practice.
The 300-page book contains information on over 200 best practices. It is available as a free download from the US government's usability.gov site.
http://usability.gov/guidelines/guidelines_book.pdf