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Usability Evangelists: New cool kids on the blockJared SpoolJared Spool is actually not that new to the field of usability. He founded User Interface Engineering in 1988, has been doing usability for more than 15 years, and is an expert in low-fidelity prototyping techniques. Jared and the other folks at User Interface Engineering conduct a lot of research on website usability (especially e-commerce sites) that they report in conferences, workshops, and reports. In 1999, Jared and others UIE folks published Web Site Usability, which summarizes the results of their research The reason I put Jared Spool in the "new cool kids" category is because of the bi-annual User Interface Conference. This conference is a cool place to be and a great learning experience. You are going to hear the new buzz words (scent of information, trigger words, and design patterns) and, most importantly, why you should care to know what they mean. Steve KrugSteve Krug is the founder of Advanced Common Sense ("just me and a few well-placed mirrors"), based in Chestnut Hill, MA. His corporate motto is "it's not rocket surgery". He is best known for his celebrated and hysterically funny Don't make me think; the book has a lot of tips and practical advice, how to think as a usability expert, and (did I mention it?) a lot of humor. Jesse James GarrettJesse James Garrett is one of the Adaptive Path's founders and a co-founder of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture. Notable achievements are the creation of a Visual Vocabulary to express information architecture concepts; and the book The Elements of User Experience in which he introduced the concept of the Five Plans (or five Ss) to describe user experience (Strategy, Scope, Structure, Skeleton, and Surface). Mark HurstMark Hurst is the founder of Creative Good and the author of the popular newsletter Good Experience. Mark believes that designing a great "customer experience" requires much more than usability tools; it requires new user research methodologies such as listening labs and the ability to create and embrace business strategy and business success measures (download a PDF on Creative Good's Customer Experience Methodology). Although Mark was named "one of the 1,000 most creative individuals in the U.S." in Richard Saul Wurman's book 1,000 and InfoWorld magazine named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999, not everybody agrees with him. Information architects seem particularly at odds with some of Mark Hurst's claims; some years ago Peter Merholz made fun of Mark's obsession with customer experience (look for the September 24th entry) and Lou Rosenfeld argued with him on the importance of information architecture in creating a good experience (read their animated exchange). |
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