I used to be such a Jakob devotee.  I really was.  The whole notion of evaluating whether web sites and applications were “usable” seemed so fresh and logical.  I read everything the guy wrote.  I forwarded his articles on to my teammates (this was when I was still in the corporate web development world), along with comments/concerns about current projects we were developing that seemed to go against what Jakob was writing.  I even looked into engaging with the Nielsen Norman Group to review the corporate site we were working on (the $10K/day price tag quickly put that notion to rest).  I became known (affectionately, or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it) as the “usability curmudgeon” who would try to reign in starry-eyed contract Flash designers who wanted to make a name for themselves by using the corporate money cow to publish “cutting-edge” interfaces.

And it seemed like the rest of the web development world was entranced by this so-called “Guru” of Usability - when Jakob published a new article I would receive links to it through a dozen different RSS and email subscriptions.  That article would fuel the discussion for at least a week afterwards.

But these days?  I hardly even think about Useit.com, don’t “use it” as a resource, and hardly see reference to it in the various web-development circles I frequent.  Is it just me, or have we “gotten over” the whole usability Guru thing?

In fact - it seems the only time I see reference to Jakob’s work is when a client wants to do something on their website, and the developer putting the site together doesn’t agree with the idea.  The designer then starts doing what I was guilty of years ago - sending links to something that Jakob wrote as “proof” that the client’s decision is wrong.

Essentially - Jakob and his writing becomes the “usability stick” with which the designer uses to beat the client into submission.

The main problem is that the “guidelines” that Jakob publishes are sometimes at odds with other studies.  Take, for example, the whole issue of content length and a client who wants to put a fair amount of text on the home page.  But, the designer notes that Jakob says keep it short as people scan, and won’t read all the content.

But - is the goal of the page being usable, or selling more of the client’s product?  Does being more usable equal more sales, and therefore all of Jakob’s “recommendations” should be implemented?  I ask because there are studies from outside the Usability world that indicate that longer copy can increase conversions.

So what’s a web designer/developer to do?

While I’m sure both sides of the fence could be debated (and that’s not my intent with this post), I think what bothers me most about the situation is that Jakob and the whole “usability guru” thing have made it seem that usability and building the best website for a client is as simple as following a set of (often high-level, vague or altogether outlandish) “recommendations”. 

Jakob has actually done a disservice to the web development community because we’ve just accepted his “guru-ness” and fail to think critically about the issues with a specific website and how to evaluate it against it’s own specific goals, using it’s specific audience.

It’s time to set the usability stick down, let the gurus be the talking heads at the conferences, and be more involved in our specific projects—finding our own ways to test and improve for ourselves and our clients.

I write this as much for myself as anyone else.