Do you rate Jakob Nielsen?

[mattk]

Probably the most famous commentator on Web design/usability I used to hate him with a passion. However, now I'm a little older and a little mellower I have to confess he does make some very valid points.

This is him (http://www.useit.com)

[Coding Monkey]

I have a book of his that half bored me to death. If I read it again my heart will therefore stop beating.

[DavidHorn]

I really dislike the way he has gained a repuatation as the 'go to guy' for usability. A lot of his views are outdated, and some of them are just plain wrong.

Most of what he says has some validity but his assuredness in himself as The Oracle of usability is astounding.

And why people take his opinions as gospel is astonishing - it's like if you mention his name you have to treat his utterances as uncontradictable!

[SillyJokes]

Most of what he says has some validity but his assuredness in himself as The Oracle of usability is astounding.


Isn't that because he is American?

He did advise Google in the early days and they turned out alright.

I do like him and I like Steve Krug which won't surprise you.

However since he rubs designers up the wrong way I confidently predict this thread will run and run.

Let's have a heated debate.

[DavidHorn]

Ha! You're right ... he does rub 'us' up the wrong way.

Now, Steve Krug on the other hand is, I think, a far better communicator and talks an awful lot of sense. His 'don't make me think' mantra certainly helped define usability for the masses (of users and designers) in a way that Nielsen couldn't come close to.

But his top 10 web design mistakes of the year is always worth reading:

www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html

But too often he talks in generalisations without providing any backup - something which, I think , Krug avoids more.

This is worth reading too:

www.designbyfire.com/000068.html

[Top Hat]

A lot of his views are outdated, and some of them are just plain wrong.

I'm curious:
Which views are outdated
and which views are plain wrong?

Then we can start the debate :)

[SillyJokes]

I think for back up he cites the hundreds of usability tests he has worked on and witnessed.

He has probably watched more people actually use the web than most designers.

Very often websites are designed but no one ever actually watches someone use it. They guess how it might be used and tell the website owner how it will be used, but they don't really know how it will be used.

Jacob can make an informed guess on how a site will be used based on experience of really watching how they are used.

Im my limited experience of watching how people use our site I was surprised that people did not do what I expected them to. We were able to improve the site with these insights which I would have been unable to know without seeing people interact with the site in the flesh.

[mattk]

I think he's a bit of a Luddite when it comes to technology. He always used to slag off Flash and heavily designed sites. Recently he's been ranting on about Ajax and similar technologies.

I think if everyone had followed his musings then the Web would be a much more boring place than it is today.

[DavidHorn]

I appreciate that he has been involved in hundreds of usability tests and watched thousands of people use websites. (Although I don't think he has actually designed any). But he still needs to back up what he says with the relevant data. Too often his Alertbox email is full of bold proclamations which sound like those from a fundamentalist, rather than a considered and balanced opinion.

I think what turned me off to him was his proclamation a few years ago that flash was 99% bad. He has since modified his views slightly, but they remain pretty vitriolic.

What he has started to get at - albeit several years later - is that 99% of Flash designers are bad.

Certainly recent innovations in web development like increased recognition of the DOM and the use of AJAX (wonderful and welcome as they are), achieve effects that have long been achievable using Flash.

An example of something outdated - well, perhaps 'outdated' is the wrong word - but his preference for liquid layouts over fixed layouts, is baffling. I agree that liquid layouts are a definite boon (my own site uses a liquid layout) in some environments, but to state 'On big monitors, websites are difficult to use if they don't resize with the window', is just not the case. Badly designed websites that don't resize are difficult to use, I agree.

An example of something that's just plain wrong: as recently as 2004 he stated that cross browser compatibility for websites was a 'one star guideline - worth thinking about if you have extra project time, but not a priority'. Cross browser compatibility is something that should be near the top of every designers concerns - especially those concerned with accessibility. Designing for text readers - rather than visual browsers - is of key importance to, say, blind people using the web.

Again, I agree with an awful lot of what he says and without question, every web designer can learn *an awful lot* from him - my principal problem with him is that everything he says is taken as 'The Law' and that if he has said it 'then it must be true'. I think that his status can discourage people from investigating design choices that may well be appropriate.

[Richard Conyard]

I guess you could look at his website http://www.useit.com/

and rate the usability experience.