San Jose Merc Discovers Jakob Nielsen
from the and-takes-him-shopping! dept
I guess it’s that time of year. Time to write a random article about usability. This time, the San Jose Mercury takes their turns pointing out that most people don’t know how to use most technology they own. This is, of course, a usability problem. And, so, out trots the usual suspects such as Jakob Nielsen (they even take him to Fry’s to point out bad usability on various products) and Alan Cooper. Now, I agree that usability is a big issue – and folks like Nielsen and Cooper often have important and interesting stuff to say (though, not always). However, these sorts of articles have been appearing for years and it hasn’t done much good. Products are just as crappy as they have been in the past. I’m not sure another article telling me about Nielsen’s refusal to buy a new computer is going to help any. Besides, as we’ve pointed out before, these guys make mistakes too.
