(boy this is confusing with all these Richards :)
First of all, I really enjoy your videos. I just became aware of them lately although it seems you've been doing this (video blogging) a lot longer than me.
Second, I certainly think Jakob Nielson (whose name I'm constantly misspelling, sorry) has done a lot of good in calling attention to usability and, on-balance, is certainly good for our community. A big part of any criticism of him comes from the fact that he is so popular and successful (I should be so lucky :).
Third, I certainly appreciate what you're saying and you're probably right that was a "touch unfair to Nielson" -
Fourth, you touch on a fundamental issue that I struggle with always when dealing with industry practitioners and their proprietary research. Since I moved from our Psychology department to Information Science and since my research has come to focus on usability and become more and more applied I have worked more an more with industry practitioners. They have been very good and helpful to me in understanding what my students will be doing in the "real world", they come and talk in classes, and they have given me all sorts of advice and consulting for free and, most importantly, they've hired my students!
However, here's the issue. (And this is not opposing anything you've said.)
On 12/7/05, Richard Bennett-Forrest <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In my world, the method, analyses, and results of research are open to everyone. There are now some free ed research journals on the web where people even provide all of the raw data for anyone to look at our re-analyze as they choose. In addition, there is peer review, where things are not published until they are judged to be appropriate by "experts". I , will admit that I have some issues with peer review in that I think it often tends to encourage research that is esoteric to some academic group pushing it away from the "real world", but I love and am very attached to the notion that all of the research is open to anyone who can go to a library and check out the journal. I'm very excited by the movement in some academic circle to publish all research, for free, on the web. I post most of my papers, with method/procedures etc on the web and will post them all if I ever get the time. So, of course the point is, I have no way of evaluating the research that Nielson bases his claims on - I don't know anything about what he actually did. I'm not sure how to get around this - it's a fundamental problem that comes up for us more and more when we have grad students who are working in industry and want to do theses or dissertations for research associated with their jobs (important, real world research) but they can't release findings, and especially can't release info about their method - though these things could ultimately help people to design systems that made us all happier in dealing with interfaces - pretty frustrating.
... and, well, ramble ramble ... got to stop somewhere ... thanks for your message, and it's pretty cool to know that it sounds like you've spent some time in the user design world, which will make your videos even cooler ... best regards ... the other Richard
The only time you'll see the more extensive research in his public or
free newsletters or web site, is when the research is old, or he's
claiming an opinion (as you say) which is actually based upon the
research. In the latter case he won't quote the research, because he
charges for it, so it looks like he's just making it up.
In my world, the method, analyses, and results of research are open to everyone. There are now some free ed research journals on the web where people even provide all of the raw data for anyone to look at our re-analyze as they choose. In addition, there is peer review, where things are not published until they are judged to be appropriate by "experts". I , will admit that I have some issues with peer review in that I think it often tends to encourage research that is esoteric to some academic group pushing it away from the "real world", but I love and am very attached to the notion that all of the research is open to anyone who can go to a library and check out the journal. I'm very excited by the movement in some academic circle to publish all research, for free, on the web. I post most of my papers, with method/procedures etc on the web and will post them all if I ever get the time. So, of course the point is, I have no way of evaluating the research that Nielson bases his claims on - I don't know anything about what he actually did. I'm not sure how to get around this - it's a fundamental problem that comes up for us more and more when we have grad students who are working in industry and want to do theses or dissertations for research associated with their jobs (important, real world research) but they can't release findings, and especially can't release info about their method - though these things could ultimately help people to design systems that made us all happier in dealing with interfaces - pretty frustrating.
... and, well, ramble ramble ... got to stop somewhere ... thanks for your message, and it's pretty cool to know that it sounds like you've spent some time in the user design world, which will make your videos even cooler ... best regards ... the other Richard
--
Richard
http://www.richardshow.com
SPONSORED LINKS
| Individual | Fireant | Use |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "videoblogging" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
