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Posting Date: August 01, 2002
 

Response: The Backlash against Jakob Nielsen and What it Teaches Us (Usability News) -- "Unfortunately, Nielsen's pronouncements have all too often been like a restaurant critic insisting we should all eat only a McDonald's, since after all it's the most efficient restaurant around." (Comments: Nice!)

 

  

Reader Comments...
 

George Olsen has explained the Nielsen Backlash very eloquently. He describes the problems Usability is facing in a clear and concise manner.

His rational tone puts me to shame.

damned usability experts, telling me how to hold my mouse grrrrrrrr.... Shut up Erasmus

Posted by: Mac on August 1, 2002 09:40 AM

 

You know, maybe we should just throw a WebWord barbecue and invite Jakob over.

Posted by: Jack on August 1, 2002 10:12 AM

 

Jack, I would be happy to attend. I shall of course charge my normal hourly rate of $2,000, that works out at $6.75 per finger wag. (microprint copyright Uncle Jakob 2002 pat. pending)

Posted by: Uncle Jakob on August 1, 2002 12:15 PM

 

OK, OK, I promise not to be rational again...

Posted by: george on August 1, 2002 02:18 PM

 

George...

Update your damn blog! ;)

(Fine case of pot calling the kettle black, I know. But I maintain that Webword is also my blog, given how many comments I post here.)

Posted by: MadMan on August 1, 2002 02:38 PM

 

OK, I sent this to John by email, but this deserves a mention in a public forum so we can all use the power of the Blog collective to ridicule Adobe. ;)

-- START EXPERIENCE --

So I decided to write to Adobe and tell them to fix their site so that http://adobe.com actually goes to their site.

I dutifully visited their "contact us" page at: http://www.adobe.com/misc/webform.html

and filled this in:

[quote]

I would imagine that a company that "gets it" like Adobe would at least ensure that http://adobe.com also goes to the web site, but it doesn't. Only the "www.adobe.com" version works. Did you know that your company is ridiculed for this on web development mailing lists? It doesn't help your company image at all.

[/quote]

... and I hit the "Submit" button.

What do I get?


Guess...

No, guess again...

OK, I got a... wait for it... 404 "page not found" error. ( http://cgi1.adobe.com/misc/webformthanks.html )

That's right, this is what I got:

[quote]

We're sorry! The page you were trying to view is no longer here. If you reached this page from another part of Adobe.com, please let us know so we can fix the problem.

Use our search engine to locate what you're looking for
Where to search:

Entire site
Product Information only
Technical Support documents only

[/quote]


I guess Adobe doesn't want your feedback after all. ;)

Posted by: MadMan on August 1, 2002 02:43 PM

 

There's a slim justification for not recognising http://adobe.com - SSL certificates. When you buy a certificate, it must be registered for a specific URL, including the www part, and used on that site. The certificate will still work if the DNS server recognises the URL without the www and resolves to the same IP address, but your browser will generate a warning. On commerce sites, this can be a bit off-putting.

One client of ours ran across the problem, and asked for the entry on the DNS server to be removed as a solution to the problem. I'm not sure what the alternative solution would have been, other than setting up a complete mirror of the site, with it's own SSL certificate.

Posted by: Alan Fisher on August 2, 2002 10:43 AM

 

I was just on JN site and this is what he is asking for....

We are not looking at traditional multimedia content or splash intros - only "good" Flash that provides utility to users.

What is good flash?...he defines it as 99% bad and then sells out to Macromedia to come up with good design principles....but he hasn't told us what they are, so what is good flash?

He is really starting to piss me off.

AND he better not be changing Macromedia for this flash usability work because he has been asking everyone to so the work for him.


Posted by: JB on August 2, 2002 03:06 PM

 

"Good flash" is when my camera gives me the kind of picture I'm looking for.

Like Mac once said, even if Nielsen made a 100% improvement in usability, Flash would still be 98% bad. ROFL.

Let's now play the "Uncle Jakob statistics" game!

Uncle Jakob is:

05% visual designer
15% clueless
35% without facts or data
70% dictatorial
80% narrow-minded
90% opinionated
92% NNGroup salesman
99% annoying
100% hypocrite

Add your own stats, boys and girls!

(Hey John, now that's gotta be worth linking to. Then someone else will pick it up and link to it, then more people will play, then more people will link to it... it's the circle of life ;)

Posted by: MadMan on August 2, 2002 03:48 PM

 

Someone with an intellect like mine, will never be understood in his own lifetime. You ungrateful swine, one day you will feel my wrath (microprint copyright Uncle Jakob 2002 pat. pending)

Posted by: Uncle Jakob on August 4, 2002 07:25 AM

 

I'm Jakob Nielsen, yes I'm the real Nielsen, and all you other Nielsens are just immitating, so won't the real Nielsen please stand up... please stand up... please stand up?

Posted by: MadMan on August 6, 2002 06:42 AM

 

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