User Experience IX

source: http://adaptivepath.com/events/workshops/we05/veen_beyond-usability.pdf

Loved or hated, Jacob Nielsen (JN) is always controversial for his views in the area of usability and the web. Some (web) designers take the view of criticising JN for being stuck in the web’s past, where functionality and efficiency were king.

Assuming that the basics of functional usability are taken care of, JN does not advocate for design-less websites, but for websites that a free from superfluous design elements that can/could be potential distracting and get in the way of the users tasks. With so many free services around, and a good design and a good user experience is a key differentiator of the service.

There are many websites (including this one) that still do not strictly comply with some of the basic usability heuristics (or even accessibility). However, the web has moved on and almost you could get out-of-the box a basic CMS (Content Management Server) that deals with the basics aspects of the design and functionality. As the CMS software is a commodity (quite a lot of CMS, including the weblog service that I use are free), what needs to be different is the user experience. This is probably a sign that at this level, usability is becoming a comodity.