Maybe I’m tilting at windmills with this particular discussion, but when usability guru Jakob Nielsen comes out with his list of Eight Problems That Remain, an excerpt of his newly published book Prioritizing Web Usability, I can’t help but yawn and marvel at how he’s so out of touch with the reality of the modern Web and blogosphere.

For example, he believes that sites that don’t have visited links a different color to unvisited links are committing a critical, three skull-and-crossbone error, yet I can’t think of a site I visit with any frequency that doesn’t violate this “guideline.” How about you? Found yourself lost on a Web site recently because visited links weren’t purple?

Here’s his full list, in case you’re curious:

  • Links that don’t change color when visited
  • Breaking the back button
  • Opening new browser windows
  • Pop-up windows
  • Design elements that look like advertisements
  • Violating Web-wide conventions
  • Vaporous content and empty hype
  • Dense content and unscannable text

I admit that some of what he highlights in this article and, presumably, in his book remains a genuine problem with Web usability, but so much of his criticism seems to be from an academic’s ivory tower. I’m also curious what Web sites he visits on a daily basis too.

Ah, but that’s just me. What do you think about his list?

Dave Taylor runs the popular Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support site, where Jakob would doubtless say his design skills stink. On his other weblog, The Intuitive Life Business Blog, he’s also written a longer and more in-depth commentary on the Eight Problems with Web Design: Jakob Nielsen on Web Usability.

[tags]web design,usability,user interface design,jakob nielsen,web convention[/tags]