Nielsen in Conclusion

I found it really interesting today how most people, well all people in my section of the class who presented today said that they disagreed with Nielsen. It isn't that I am surprised that people disagreed with him; I am surprised basically everyone disagreed.

It's a funny thing when one starts to think about what usability actually is. Nielsen bases his standards on experience and usability testing, but it's clear that even that doesn't satisfy some people. For example, Nielsen talks about scrolling as if it's the devil, but sometimes one just has to scroll, or wants to scroll, or does not think about minding that one is scrolling.

I thought about what Nielsen would have thought if he saw a lot of our website presentations. He may have thought that some were good, even if they broke his standards.

Perhaps the the issue is what the word "standard" actually implies. If by standard one means something that one adheres to always, then the standards are broken everyday. I think Nielsen and all of us need to think of standards even moreso as guidelines than we already do.

The good thing about guidelines is they are so vague that it will mold to basically any situation. If that's the case, then why even bother writing a book on what should be done on a webpage?