Academic Papers regarding usability - Jakob Nielsen??

Hey Guys

I'm doing a report on usablility corresponding to Jakob Nielsens principles. I'm after some usability papers which discuss nielsen/explain and list princples regarding to this area.

Doe anyone have any good leads on this?

Thanks for your time

If you have access to http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm (maybe through a school) is all you'll need

Here's an online book about building User Interfaces
http://hcibib.org/tcuid/

Why don't you try searching his site, http://www.useit.com/ , it's a disgusting looking site, blah! But, everything is there.

Thanks guys for your input...will look into them

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Originally Posted by VODKA MONKEY

Why don't you try searching his site, http://www.useit.com/ , it's a disgusting looking site, blah! But, everything is there.

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Do u know who the site is made by...lol...Jakob himself...lol.

Thats why i am looking for another papers since i dont want just information from the one person. I'm trying to write a report that is kinda against his theories.

The Guy was once great at this stuff and his basic information is very important...But the guy has not kept up with the times. If we all listened to everything he said i dont think many sites would look too different from his ;) lol

i liked his commentary about search engines. i agree that they need to be refined.

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Originally Posted by indivision

i liked his commentary about search engines. i agree that they need to be refined.

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Yeah the guy have some very interesting things to say and not everything he say's about usability is crap.

But the problem is he has a way of slagging down sites that have a great design, but because they are rich in multimedia he dislikes them.

Looking at his site you can see how behind he is. You dont always need to comprimise on usability with a bit of multimedia. There can be the best of both worlds its just a shame he cant see that

I think his site actually breaks a few of his own "rants"/rules, but as far as it goes, I don't really think he has too many valid things to say about design, but he's on point about useability.

Nielsen is a total hack. He blasts flash for years, until he's in macromedia's pocket. Then suddenly all the usability problems with flash are gone because now he's advising them? Because of what, the UI components that aren't even consistenty used?

His biggest problem is he gives such little credit to the user. Sure, we all know some people can be complete idiots when it comes to using computers, but people are much more web savvy than 6-8 years ago. In an age where people jump from computer, to cellphone, to blackberry and other sorts of devices people are becoming far more flexible that Neilsen gives credit for.

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Originally Posted by stevietat

His biggest problem is he gives such little credit to the user. Sure, we all know some people can be complete idiots when it comes to using computers, but people are much more web savvy than 6-8 years ago. In an age where people jump from computer, to cellphone, to blackberry and other sorts of devices people are becoming far more flexible that Neilsen gives credit for.

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Not all people. And amazingly usable designs can come from assuming your user is a complete idiot.

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Originally Posted by yasunobu13

Not all people. And amazingly usable designs can come from assuming your user is a complete idiot.

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I'll agree that great useable designs come from assuming the user doesn't know what the hell they are doing, but I'd say some other great ones give the user much more credit than Neilsens set of 'web rules' does.

For example, compare google maps to mapquest. Technically mapquest follows good web rules of interaction (single clicks, a labelled zoom slider, navigational buttons).

But imo google's works more fluidly not only because of its fancy AJAX utilization, but because its interaction model is more complex. It has double clicking, dragging, single clicking on place markers...Which is assuming the user is familiar with these type of interactions which lie outside of the usual web model.

While it may take someone a bit longer to figure out how to use all these 'tools', I don't think they are so daunting as to completely overwhelm the user ,and in the end, they contributing to a faster workflow. People who are very casual web surfers that I have shown google maps too usually get the hang of it immediately. While there examples of this more complex interaction gone bad as well, there are some like google maps which demonstrate how we can start to invovle more complex interaction into the web user experience.

I got his book called "Usability" which I brought and used back at durham uni. It might be what you are looking for.

If your library do not have this in stock, I do still have it and been meaning to sell it. Let me know if you want it. ;)

Nielsen has many valid points but he's a media/attention whore and he's willing to skew what he has to say to get the most attention.

There are many many usability experts who understand the relationship between design and usability and can present their findings in a well thought out manner that is actually relevant to the real world for both the developer and the user.

Ok guys got something else to ask....Does anyone know of an Academic Paper that talks about Jakob?

I'm trying to find one that is for his ideas and one against his ideas

Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

there might be some things of interest here: http://citeseer.csail.mit.edu/cs?qb=...0w/2%20nielsen

check out www.adaptivepath.com

thanks guys will take alook at them.

Anyone else that can help is still very welcome :)

Thanks again

We oddly have a forum devoted to such matters.,,,

http://flashkit.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=83