“Though Nielsen Norman is still the éminence grise looming over Web design, time and the Web have moved on. Flash and other digital razzmatazz are no longer beyond the Web design pale and new technologies and devices such as notebooks and smart phones have arrived on the scene. Increasingly, the digital world is going mobile.

So, how is usability faring these days? Do the old verities preached by Nielson still hold true? Alex Wright is the director of User Experience and Product Research at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He began his Web work in the anything-goes pre-Nielsen days. “Like a lot of folks in the Web business, I’ve had a bit of a circuitous career, working at various times as a journalist, librarian, designer, researcher ― and once upon a time, burger flipper,” he says. “I started my first Web job back in 1995 at IBM, during the Wild West era of the Web. Back then we were all making it up as we went along, but over the next few years I began to work with some of the human factors engineers in the company’s software group, where I received some on-the-job-training in user-centered design techniques.”

Read More

“There was a lively discussion around the iphone which was less about the platform and who drives the technology behind the phone and more about the reach of the iphone and iphone apps. Although it may seem like everyone has one of these big shiny distractions – ultimately the market share for the iphone represents 2.8% of US handsets (comScore 7/2009). So the panel argued if you really want to reach your audience you’ll need to look across the multiple mobile devices that are in market today. However they did say that the app store can be a good way to drive PR buzz if you can get past and climb to the top of the app popularity list.” Read More