I resent Jakob Nielsen because he is always right, and that is the worst, most infuriating habit.

Take a look at his latest directive at webmonkey. Or just peruse this summary (quoted from the article) of his current complaints about web pages:

* Links that don’t change color when visited
* Breaking the back button
* Opening new browser windows
* Pop-up windows
* Design elements that look like advertisements
* Violating Web-wide conventions
* Vaporous content and empty hype
* Dense content and unscannable text

Flash designers should take these complaints especially seriously, because more than your average HTML designer, they deserve them. How often do you see Flash sites that color visited links…I mean, how hard is that? And how often is a useful back button implemented? (I’m not talking about the exotic browser-integrated “frame label” hack, I’m talking about a Flash back button that actually recalls saved states….not easy, but easier with Flash than HTML.)

So Jakob Nielsen should keep scolding. My only counter-complaint is that his complaints are too specific and HTML-oriented. I’d generalize his specific irritations: a user should be able to orient themselves, yes, God yes. That may be accomplished through back buttons and visited links…but if you have a good design, perhaps you can accomplish otherwise….and if you accomplish it very well, you don’t even have to abide strictly by “Web-wide conventions.” I mean, that’s why Flash is cool, right?

I thought about Nielsen the other day when I let my 6-year-old nephew draw using my Cintiq. I explained the presets to him ONCE and he started drawing and pressing the presets.

I wonder what will be usable for him, ten years on? I’ll bet a lot of carefully designed, Nielsen-friendly sites (meant to hang on to awkward, older users) will make him impatient–and I hope Nielsen will be around to measure this novel round of impatience.

Tags: usability · FlashNo Comments