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41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

uxtigers.com

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Re: 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

#3

Post by micheljansen »

Nielsen's usability heuristics, arguably his most impactful work, still hold up surprisingly well after more than 30 years. It's hard to understate the impact he has had on my own career, as well as the UX field as a whole (together with Don Norman, of course).

Also sobering to read how much of his career seems obvious in hindsight, but also was shaped so much by randomness and chance (such as taking not taking the job at Apple).

Re: 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

#5

Post by christophilus »

amykhar wrote: post #2

His book made a big impression on me back in the day. And, to be honest, I still prefer the minimal and predictible style of web site that he recommended.

Which book? There seem to be quite a few, and I wouldn’t mind picking one up, if you have one to recommend.

Re: 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

#6

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

> The opportunity cost of going without industry experience for multiple years will hinder your advancement for decades.

I suspect that goes for most creative/engineering vocations.

However, one aspect of formal education, that is often missed, in OJT, is a very broad base, and an early understanding of “the basics.”

Also, people with formal education, are often able to work in a very formal, structured manner, early in their career. This (IMO), is pretty important, in engineering and research.

That said, I’m a high school dropout, with a GED. I ended up doing OK, but YMMV.

Re: 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

#8

Post by kleiba »

christophilus wrote: post #5
amykhar wrote: post #2

His book made a big impression on me back in the day. And, to be honest, I still prefer the minimal and predictible style of web site that he recommended.

Which book? There seem to be quite a few, and I wouldn’t mind picking one up, if you have one to recommend.

The one he mentions in the article: "Designing Web Usability".

Re: 41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

#9

Post by zer00eyz »

20 ish years ago I ended up with a UX gig.

Best experience of my work history. Detouring into site structure, information design, and doing actual USABILITY (behind a 2 way mirror watching real people use your app) was amazing.

Jacob Nielson was blowhard even then. His "all links must be blue and underlined" mantra was tired even then. It takes a lot for me to say this, but his pedantry at the time puts peak Richard Stallman to shame!

They are apparently still dancing around the edges of this topic: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/

Now older and wiser, candidly a lot of folks would be well served by default blue links, og html submit buttons and tables for layouts. A fair bit of modern UI is complete trash: it's the product of a designer and a product person putting the next bullet point on their resume.

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