Articles

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., is a retired principal and co-founder (with Dr. Donald A. Norman) of the Nielsen Norman Group. Jakob established the "discount usability engineering" movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and invented the heuristic evaluation method.

Articles and Videos

  • Will UX Ever Become Obsolete? (Jakob Nielsen)

    Research and design go hand in hand and have staying power. Even as UX principles become more widely accepted, there is always more to learn and improve.

  • User Testing: Why & How (Jakob Nielsen)

    There is no excuse for not performing usability studies. They’re fast and cheap, and very convincing. Test with representative customers using realistic tasks, then be amazed by what you observe.

  • Annoying Online Ads Do Cost Business

    Increased advertising caused a 2.8% drop in use of an Internet service. The full magnitude of the lost business was only clear after a full year.

  • Industries Impacted Most by UX (Jakob Nielsen)

    Industries such as technology and ecommerce have reaped the rewards of good UX. Other sectors such as B2B and Intranets are following suit.

  • How to Start a New Career in UX (Jakob Nielsen)

    Getting started in the UX profession doesn’t mean a new degree. Try evolving your role or work with UX mentors who can support your quest.

  • The UX Unicorn Myth (Jakob Nielsen)

    UX constitutes many different specialties such as researcher, interaction designer, visual designer, copywriter, and information architect. Forcing one person to do it all is a prescription for mediocrity.

  • Confirmation Dialogs Can Prevent User Errors — If Not Overused

    8 UX guidelines to avoid many serious user errors reduce the risk that people automatically agree to a warning without realizing the consequences.

  • 10 UX Challenges for the Next 25 Years (Jakob Nielsen Keynote)

    Jakob Nielsen presents his UX directions for the future: How UX roles will evolve, and how UX involvement can solve major challenges for the world. (This was the keynote at the UX Conference in Las Vegas.)

  • Do We Know Anything About UX?

    Jakob Nielsen discusses how proven heuristics and UX design guidelines can drive big advances in creating valuable products.

  • A 100-Year View of User Experience

    The UX profession has grown substantially since 1950 everywhere in the world. Even so, the expected growth until 2050 will dwarf anything we’ve seen so far.