Function Drives Form - Nielsen

2006.03.19

Designers seem to hate Jakob Nielsen, but there’s no doubt that this guru knows his stuff. Came across this DevSource interview where he discusses everything from the proper attitude for programmers (why being smart might be bad for your code), to the importance of prototyping in design, to the reasons why PDF, Flash and local search engines can hurt more than they help.

Since people with slow connections (like those in Sri Lanka) might not be able to watch it, here’s an excerpt of a part of the interview which I found very useful, where he discusses inexpensive user testing:

User testing can be very fast and very cheap. It can also be very expensive and very elaborate; and both actually have their roles. And for some really huge, big projects, maybe the expensive method has it’s place. But for the average project, you do not need a lab, you do not need a one-way mirror, do not need an eye-tracking machine, you do not need five digital recorders or anything […] There’s only one thing you really need, which is a user.

Sit with the user, just at a regular table, in a small conference room or an office; it does have to be where you could close the door because you got to have a peace and quiet [environment].

Sit with that user, and ask them to do something with your website or software, and then see what they do. And the only other piece of equipment is a notepad: write notes, write down what the user says, write down what they do, where they click, where they don’t click. Ask them to think out loud, so they keep a running commentary as they’re using the design on what they’re thinking. And they’ll often say that they have this mental model that is something completely different of what it’s supposed to be. And this is really important because that’s how you know you’ve got to communicate the design differently. And you get that by sitting next to a person, listening to them, watching them, observing them.

No equipment other than notepad and, well, a computer if you’re testing a live software, but you can also just test a drawing of an interface on a piece of paper. Then really you have literally two pieces of paper: one piece of paper that’s a drawing of the screen, another one that’s your notepad. And that’s everything; then you can do user testing.

The last time I (inadvertently) did such user testing was for Microsoft® Outlook™. The client was having email problems, and the overly complex UI of Outlook was just too much trouble to decipher. We sent him home with a freshly installed Thunderbird on his laptop, and the feedback has been excellent.

Permanent Link | Filed under: Design, Thoughts

3 Comments

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  1. James AkaXakA

    April 2nd, 2006 at 8:43 pm

    Designers seem to hate Jakob Nielsen, but there’s no doubt that this guru knows his stuff.

    Well, he knew his stuff in 1997 and has never changed his tune since. He also doesn’t recognise the value of aesthetically pleasing design in usability - a major miss in my (and a lot of others’) opinion.

    Just look at his site. It might be usable, but would you want to use it?

  2. Prabhath

    April 2nd, 2006 at 10:29 pm

    James, I won’t challenge that. His site does need a good facelift.

  3. Art

    April 3rd, 2006 at 10:29 am

    You make an interesting point, perhaps Nielsen needs to learn a bit about the what the user’s of his site want.

    “And this is really important because that’s how you know you’ve got to communicate the design differently. And you get that by sitting next to a person, listening to them, watching them, observing them.”

    So, how much of a guru is he if fails to follow his own advice and work with users to find out what they require?

    Now if you would please excuse a shameless plug ;-) If you want someone locally who has expertise in this ‘usability stuff’, I am your man.