Jakob Nielsen (usability consultant)
Encyclopedia
Jakob Nielsen is a leading web usability
consultant. He holds a Ph.D. in human–computer interaction
from the Technical University of Denmark
in Copenhagen.
) (Bell Communications Research), the Technical University of Denmark
, and the IBM User Interface Institute at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center
.
Distinguished Engineer. He was hired to make heavy-duty enterprise software easier to use, since large-scale applications had been the focus of most of his projects at the phone company and IBM. But luckily the job definition of a Distinguished Engineer is "you're supposed to be the world's leading expert in your field, so you figure out what would be most important for the company for you to work on." Therefore, Dr. Nielsen ended up spending most of his time at Sun defining the emerging field of web usability. He was the usability lead for several design rounds of Sun's website and intranet (SunWeb), including the original SunWeb design in 1994.
' book series in Interactive Technologies.
Nielsen continues to write a newsletter on web design matters and has published several books on the subject of web design
. After his regular articles on his Web site about usability research attracted media attention, he subsequently co-founded usability consulting company Nielsen Norman Group
with fellow usability expert Donald Norman
.
. He holds 79 United States patents, mainly on ways of making the Web easier to use.
Nielsen gave his name to Nielsen's Law, in which he stated that network connection speeds for high-end home users would increase 50% per year, or double every 21 months. As a corollary, he noted that as this growth rate is slower than the Moore's Law
growth in processor power, user experience would remain bandwidth-bound.
Nielsen has also given his five quality components of Usability Goals, which are:
Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors (as in low error rate), Satisfaction.
s for failing to balance the importance of other user experience
considerations such as eye appeal.
Web usability
Web usability is the application of usability in those domains where web browsing can be considered as a general paradigm for constructing a GUI.-General:...
consultant. He holds a Ph.D. in human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
from the Technical University of Denmark
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark , often simply referred to as DTU, is a university just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions, and the...
in Copenhagen.
Early life and background
Nielsen's earlier affiliations include Bellcore (now Telcordia TechnologiesTelcordia Technologies
Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph...
) (Bell Communications Research), the Technical University of Denmark
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark , often simply referred to as DTU, is a university just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions, and the...
, and the IBM User Interface Institute at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Thomas J. Watson Research Center
The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division.The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts.- Overview :The...
.
Sun Microsystems
From 1994 to 1998 he was a Sun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
Distinguished Engineer. He was hired to make heavy-duty enterprise software easier to use, since large-scale applications had been the focus of most of his projects at the phone company and IBM. But luckily the job definition of a Distinguished Engineer is "you're supposed to be the world's leading expert in your field, so you figure out what would be most important for the company for you to work on." Therefore, Dr. Nielsen ended up spending most of his time at Sun defining the emerging field of web usability. He was the usability lead for several design rounds of Sun's website and intranet (SunWeb), including the original SunWeb design in 1994.
Current activities
Nielsen is on the editorial board of Morgan Kaufmann PublishersMorgan Kaufmann Publishers
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is a Massachusetts based publisher specializing in computer science and engineering content.Since 1984, Morgan Kaufmann has published content on information technology, computer architecture, data management, computer networking, computer systems, human computer...
' book series in Interactive Technologies.
Nielsen continues to write a newsletter on web design matters and has published several books on the subject of web design
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
. After his regular articles on his Web site about usability research attracted media attention, he subsequently co-founded usability consulting company Nielsen Norman Group
Nielsen Norman Group
Nielsen Norman Group is a usability consulting company created by user experience experts Donald Norman, Jakob Nielsen, and Bruce Tognazzini. Besides these three principals, there are many lesser known experts in the company....
with fellow usability expert Donald Norman
Donald Norman
Donald Arthur Norman is an academic in the field of cognitive science, design and usability engineering and a co-founder and consultant with the Nielsen Norman Group. He is the author of the book The Design of Everyday Things....
.
Contributions
Nielsen founded the "discount usability engineering" movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and has invented several usability methods, including heuristic evaluationHeuristic evaluation
A heuristic evaluation is a discount usability inspection method for computer software that helps to identify usability problems in the user interface design. It specifically involves evaluators examining the interface and judging its compliance with recognized usability principles...
. He holds 79 United States patents, mainly on ways of making the Web easier to use.
Nielsen gave his name to Nielsen's Law, in which he stated that network connection speeds for high-end home users would increase 50% per year, or double every 21 months. As a corollary, he noted that as this growth rate is slower than the Moore's Law
Moore's Law
Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware: the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years....
growth in processor power, user experience would remain bandwidth-bound.
Nielsen has also given his five quality components of Usability Goals, which are:
Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors (as in low error rate), Satisfaction.
Criticism
Nielsen has been criticized by some graphic designerGraphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
s for failing to balance the importance of other user experience
User experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
considerations such as eye appeal.