Article about what looks like an interesting exhibit at the London Design Museum. The exhibition focuses solely on Web Designers.

The article features Joshua Davis and his opinions about Nielsen, which are not positive. He says "I once sent him an e-mail - that he probably still has - saying that I'd beat him up if I saw him. " He goes on to say that ..."His ideas don't promote growth, they stifle creativity. We are at opposite ends of the spectrum."

Hear, hear - I think that in the appropriate context, Nielsen's thoughts may be good guidance, but when blanketly applied to the whole of the internet and all web sites they are totally stifling and bad for the future of innovation and new ways of looking at things. I think that his rules are dangerous as a one size fits all way to approach things - which I am sure is not how he means it to come across, but that is the way his punditness (is that a real word?) is percieved.

Anyway - check out the article and the museum site - specifically the DigitalDesignMuseum section.

Comments

http://www.shirky.com/writings/nielsen.html

The correct term is, "hear, hear!" It is an abbreviation for "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!"

"blanketly applied to the whole of the internet and all web sites they are totally stifling and bad for the future of innovation and new ways of looking at things"

I do think you need to make a distinction between uniformity and conformity. The (old) Macintosh interface worked well because of conformity to guidelines. Uniformity was essentially limited to the gestures and not there presentation. This a MacPaint and PageMaker user could switch between the two programs without being confused.

The same thing for the web. Move a simple search box from the upper left hand corner is not innovation. So if your site search has expected behavior keep it where most people expect to find it.

Thanks for getting me thinking. I like your site.