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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: December 03, 2002 NNGroup and Me: A Tale of Two Tickets (WebWord) -- "On the day itself we were given a presentation of a cut-down version of the NNGroup Intranet Usability Guidelines. There were no exercises and no video highlights from the usability testing sessions." (Comments: Do think this was a bait and switch? Was this false advertising? How many times have you been disappointed by conferences? Written by our very own Chris McEvoy!)
Reader Comments...
I would be outraged at the original insult of changing the seminar plan. I would be further disgusted by their flippant response. At the very, very least, your question about why you paid 800 to get the same thing you already paid for (at a smaller price) should have been addressed. Some recompense should have been offered. Absolutely intolerable, and it gives usability a bad name. Posted by: Lydia on December 3, 2002 09:33 PM
This is totally in line with the air of arrogance that Jakob writes with... They better watch out - they need to realize, by now, that people are getting a bit sick of it... Posted by: anthropocentric on December 4, 2002 03:56 AM
Q. How many times have I been disappointed by [ mainstream usability] conferences ? Q. What was your best moment at one of these conferences ? Q. How many HCI / UI / Usability / IA books published after 1998 do you still refer to? Q. How much lasting value has the last 4 years of “guru-ing” added to the design of interactive systems?
I totally feel for you. Several years ago when Builder.com still had their web conferences, I paid close to $500 for a post conference seminar with Jakob. From the conference brochure it sounded like it was a hands on class learning how to test sites from "the master". What it turned out being 30 minutes of lecture, and then he had each person critique each others work. I was appauled.. I spoke with the conference chair, and he was unaware of what the session was about. The worst thing was the seminar and the extra night in a hotel was on my tab and not my companies.. Since then I have always taken Jakob with a grain of salt. He has done some good for our community, but he has also lined his pockets with a lot of our hard earned money... Even though I was pissed I do have to say he has done a lot for our industry in regards to getting managenment to feel it is important...
Bill, that's good of you to see both sides. Jakob gets the word out about usability, but in the worst way! Sort of like Dennis Rodman getting the word out about embracing your feminine side. I'm constantly having to undo skepticism from anyone who has attended one of his seminars or bought one of his books hoping to learn more about usability. "Well, I don't need a complete overhaul" or "I know enough now to do it on my own" or "I can just rely on data other people collect". It's really frustrating. As for books after 1998, I've only picked up one on designing user interfaces (which is also, on a larger scale, about designing sites), The Design of Sites - it's a very meaty book that is well arranged so it can be used as a reference very efficiently. Nathan, did they really walk out? That's awesome! Posted by: Lydia on December 4, 2002 02:22 PM
I've yet to attend a conference that was truly worthwhile. (I'm attending fewer and fewer conferences over the years.) But that doesn't excuse the NNgroup's behavior. Spread the word about your poor experience, that's the next best thing to not spending the money in the first place. Michael Moore hides behind the title of "entertainer" while truly being a political activist. Personally, I don't find him funny or amusing but rather annoying. But to each his own. Posted by: boysen on December 4, 2002 03:27 PM
Lydia, Great book - I bought it, but it ends up getting used by the other folks in our product development team. It is the closest thing to Alexander's Pattern Language for architecture currently available to web folks. We love it around here. I have had folks in our design and content department go to a few of the NNGroup conferences, and they really liked them, but at some point you move beyond what they try to swill to the crowd. Flash is bad, wait no its good(as MM writes Jakob a big check).. I choose to spend my money on conferences that are more geared to the usability profession, and not to the design world, such as CHI and UPA, which are more academic in nature, but I have yet to feel negative about either conference. Posted by: bill on December 4, 2002 05:06 PM
Moore is like the Rush of liberals, only more factual and less annoying (i cant help but love it). Too bad work will pay to send me to JK but not to Moore! Posted by: Ryan on December 5, 2002 09:36 AM
Wait just second here people, I just realized who wrote this article. Talk haveing to take someone's ramblings with a grain of salt! This guy has the exact same writing style as JK, I wouldn't doubt hes the same person playing a joke on us. Posted by: Ryan on December 5, 2002 09:38 AM
Who on earth is JK, dude? John Kennedy? All I can say about the bait and switch is: they're scum. It IS false advertising. Chris bought a ticket based on certain promises, and they did not provide the services promised in the offer. That's violation of implicit contract. Mac should ask for his money back or sue them for breach of contract. Posted by: Cheese Witherspoon on December 5, 2002 12:06 PM
Uh, it was quite early here, sorry, that was JN (as in Jakob Nielsen) on both of those posts. I had no idea that mac and usabilitymustdie guy were in fact, the same! Its odd that I can't stand usabilitymustdie guy and I generally like Mac's stuff. Its wierd to hate and like the same person.... Posted by: Ryan on December 5, 2002 04:45 PM
Ryan, I am more than a bit upset that you actually hate me because of what I have written on UMD. I hope that you aren't implying I have made this story up, just because I am critical of NNGroup and Dr Nielsen. I can assure you that I am the same person as Chris McEvoy (see my sig link), and I am not trying to hide my identity in any way. Just to try and show that I am not inventing my complaint, here is another example of the level of customer service that NNGroup provide that you can check out yourself: Usability is about a lot more than having blue-underlined hyperlinks. It is very easy to talk about how to deliver an excellent 'user experience', but it is much more difficult to actually do it in the real world. This is what NNGroup have to say about returns policies: NNGroup E-Commerce User Experience Trust is hard to build - and easy to lose. A single violation of trust can destroy years of slowly accumulated credibility. Our users expect guarantees and policies to be easy to find, easy to understand and reasonable. By placing information about return policies in a prominent place, you can give your customers a pleasant surprise. We believe that placing a link to the return policy right on the home page will generate trust - even from those who do not need to return a product. It is not enough, however to place the return policy prominently. It also has to be a good return policy. NNGroup E-Commerce User Experience (Trust Chapter - Page 97) You will find no references to any return policy for reports at nngroup.com. There was a cancellation policy prominently displayed on the conference material which describes the responsibilites of the customer if they wish to cancel attendance, but it does not say what you should do if you were unhappy with the ecent itself. In contrast uie.com have a clear returns policy on all of their reports: Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Buy your copy of Getting Them to What They Want and you have a full 30 days to look it over. If it's not right for you, send us a mail message for a full money-back refund. User Interface Engineering also give this gaurantee regarding their training courses: We're only happy if you are. If you're not satisfied with UIE Usability Training for any reason, we’ll completely refund your money. Posted by: Mac on December 6, 2002 02:28 AM
Mac, As for the like/hate thing, I apologize for upsetting you. I am surprised however, that you were in the least bit upset. I thought that you would get it all the time for the way UMD is written. (Upset about a backlash against a backlash?) I have gone back and revisited UMD and I must say that it is a lot less disturbing then the first time around. Knowing the criticism was coming from the inside makes a difference. If you have brothers or sisters, you know what I mean. It is not this criticism of JN that upset me so much about UMD, it was they manner in which you criticize. We have all had to at one time, convert an employer, manager or co-worker into being at least user conscious, during our careers. JN’s books have helped us all point and say, “look, if you don’t believe me, read this book,” and hand them designing web usability. Your site seems to do the opposite. That said, Alertbox is useless now, I can’t even remember the last time I learned something useful from reading it, your criticism is warranted. If you couldn’t tell, this is an apology for upsetting you, and I look foreword to reading more of your posts on Webword. Ryan Ray
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