Everyone recognizes Jakob Nielsen as a usability guru. He’s published and co-authored few books. One of the books that I have is called, Homepage Usability
. Ever since I first found out about Jakob, he totally changed my views when consulting website designs.
But during one of my classes in Melbourne, I was discussing usability with my lecturer and he said that Jakob’s teachings shouldn’t be strictly followed like the bible. My lecturer said though Jakob make lots of reasonable points of website usability, not all of it should be applied.
Instead, we should all learn when, where, why, and how to implement the teachings of usability where we see fit.
BusinessLogs is one of the 9rules network members and more than often, I find one or two posts that are really worth reading.
Today was no exception when I found out Mike was kinda hammering Jakob for trying to promote Office 12, Jakob Nielsen’s Love for Office 12 Comes At A Price. And before I step into a debate of who’s wrong or right, there isn’t any sides because as we know when we talk about design it’s very subjective. So whatever I might be saying here is purely of my own personal view.
Not too long ago, Microsoft announced its release of Office 12. It’s suppose to be easier to use for its beginners because is Graphic User Interface (GUI) heavy. If you’ve not seen the screenshots yet, view some of them at CZWeb.
Mike suggests that Microsoft shouldn’t have designed for the content but with the content. Like a website, not necessarily after we’ve received the content then we just design for it. We actually need to work along the content. We need the design to be the foundation and later, the pillar of promoting the website content.
Jakob recommends that the best method of presenting readable material is by using a clear type against a high contrast background. In such cases, the best choice for this is always black text against a white background. However, if we’re always following this method, then shouldn’t we just print a paper and scan it for a website?
Coming back to Microsoft, I’ve taken the Vista beta for a run and I find that it’s user interface is even more difficult compared to its XP version. The only big difference between the two is the eye candy and other non-user friendly scenarios.
At the end of Mike’s article, it was a big assumption to make but if you know Microsoft, they’ve been through many court cases this year especially involving the abuse of the market trend. This was what Mike finally let out and I find that it wouldn’t be a surprise.
Hell, maybe Jakob is even in Microsoft’s pocket and was paid to write this to hype the new interface. Hmm, well it looks here that Nielsen and a Microsoft guy are talking about results-oriented interfaces at UX2005 with a highlight placed on Office 12. Looks like money rules Jakob’s opinions after all.
You’re big, you’re full of cash, what do you do avoid to court cases while marketing your product?
i take all of jakob’s recommendations with a pinch of salt. i know he’s good, but he’s not a web designer. if you’re not a web designer, how can you talk about good website design? check out jeff croft’s critique of jakob: http://jeffcroft.com/blog/archives/2005/10/jakobs_ten_mist.php
he once said that usability should be put in front of design all the time. That’s when i started to question the validity of his points in many cases. I can sacrifice design for usability sometimes,but not all the time.
Yeah Jakob irks me sometimes, which is why I had to write the post ;)
His book, Usability Engineering, is basically what got me into usability and user-centered design to start with so it used to be difficult for me to bash him, but not anymore!
Honestly though, he talks as if the new Office 12 user interface is shifting usability paradigms like a design earthquake, but it’s nothing really new. I write, I design, it’s finished. I use select icons and pictures to make it looks how I want. How is this new Office 12 interface radically different than that? It’s not, but Jakob pitches it like it is. Pretty misleading if you ask me.
Well, end said is maybe the big boys are overpowering the more iconic figures around the web to help spread their borders.
It would be a great surprise to actually see Jakob posting a reply to all this by a breakdown on his view of how the new interface actually works.
Cheers and really appreciate you visiting Mike. :)