Jakob Nielsen: A Design Resource for Developers
Jakob Nielsen is a pioneer in early usability engineering and an evangelist who helped kick start the “usability” industry in the late 90’s. When I was a student in university I followed a lot of his work, but don’t really pay too much attention to him anymore. Maybe I grew out of his advice. Maybe he’s just passé. One thing I’ve noticed is that Jakob tends to restate the obvious, perhaps this is why I no longer follow his Alertboxes. This isn’t too useful for the people who already know the obvious (usability and design professionals) but great for those who are learning (students and developers). Case in point, TZ pointed me to Nielsen’s February 19 2008 Alertbox: Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes. This is really a great article for developers. The mistakes may seem obvious, but they are things I catch and fix in software all the time (Yes, in KDE too).
Also, the best bit of the article is near the beginning:
Usually, applications fail because they (a) solve the wrong problem, (b) have the wrong features for the right problem, or (c) make the right features too complicated for users to understand… The only generalizable advice is this: rather than rely on your own best guesses, base your decisions on user research.
More emphasis on user research! Jakob is now back on my hit list, but as a resource for developers rather than designers.
seele :: Mar.27.2008 :: Design, General, Open Source :: 6 Comments »
Celeste,
Nail -> Head -> Hit!
I’m a huge fan of Nielson and I am no usability expert. I am, however, a developer who finds Jakob’s work invaluable. You are completely correct; for the developer Jakob is a must read.
“Usability Engineering” would be in my top 10 books that all hackers should read. Only just.
Jacob Nielsen is. He isn’t ‘was’ yet.
And apparently he doesn’t like unix :)
“But the specialized security system would have required some learning time — significant learning time if it were built on Unix, which has notoriously inconsistent user interface design and thus makes it harder to transfer skills from one application to the next. ”
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/film-ui-bloopers.html
@Seele I want to have your babies.
@eli: we’ve had this discussion about your grammar dictatorship ;-P
@Leo: yes, he is also famous for coining the term “for developers, by developers” in the usability world, even though I’m pretty sure the term existed before he said it.
“Yes, in KDE too”
That was a hoot and a holler, and no mistake!
(Though I’m happy that there is someone who is apparently catching and fixing things even there =)