41 Years in UX: A Career Retrospective

20 ish years ago I ended up with a UX gig.<p>Best experience of my work history. Detouring into site structure, information design, and doing actual USABILITY (behind a 2 way mirror watching real people use your app) was amazing.<p>Jacob Nielson was blowhard even then. His &quot;all links must be blue and underlined&quot; mantra was tired even then. It takes a lot for me to say this, but his pedantry at the time puts peak Richard Stallman to shame!<p>They are apparently still dancing around the edges of this topic: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nngroup.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;clickable-elements&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nngroup.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;clickable-elements&#x2F;</a><p>Now older and wiser, candidly a lot of folks would be well served by default blue links, og html submit buttons and tables for layouts. A fair bit of modern UI is complete trash: it&#x27;s the product of a designer and a product person putting the next bullet point on their resume.

Nielsen&#x27;s usability heuristics, arguably his most impactful work, still hold up surprisingly well after more than 30 years. It&#x27;s hard to understate the impact he has had on my own career, as well as the UX field as a whole (together with Don Norman, of course).<p>Also sobering to read how much of his career seems obvious in hindsight, but also was shaped so much by randomness and chance (such as taking not taking the job at Apple).

<i>&gt; The opportunity cost of going without industry experience for multiple years will hinder your advancement for decades.</i><p>I suspect that goes for most creative&#x2F;engineering vocations.<p>However, one aspect of formal education, that is often missed, in OJT, is a very broad base, and an early understanding of “the basics.”<p>Also, people with formal education, are often able to work in a very formal, structured manner, early in their career. This (IMO), is pretty important, in engineering and research.<p>That said, I’m a high school dropout, with a GED. I ended up doing OK, but YMMV.

41 years ago, &quot;UX&quot; did not mean what it means today: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9BdtGjoIN4E&amp;t=9s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9BdtGjoIN4E&amp;t=9s</a>&gt;

His book made a big impression on me back in the day. And, to be honest, I still prefer the minimal and predictible style of web site that he recommended.

Congratulations Jakob on your Liberation Day :)<p>Are you saying the UI is your fault ;-)<p>Serious question though: how come over the last 15 to 20 years UI&#x27;s have got considerably worse?

I would be interested in the long perspective of constantly reinvented gui toolkits and what he thinks is progress vs reinvention.<p>Early html was surely reinvention, but CSS gave us the first fine grained presentation customization mechanism.<p>Material design? If I was a Soviet despot... Well anyway.<p>Ui is alas more fashion than function. I remember the original iPhone and is realistic apps, which angered UI designers so much that we now have buttons with no visible feedback as to if they are clicked, and anonymous unicolor squares everywhere.

&gt;The background is that Terry Winograd, a professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, had invited me to lecture on some of my work in 1998. After my talk, Terry invited me to tour his lab and meet some of his graduate students. One of the Ph.D. students was a bright young fellow named Larry Page, who showed me his project to enhance the relevance of web search results.<p>Many of those lectures are online. I was not able to find the 1998 one he mentioned, but here is one that Jakob Neilsen gave on May 20, 1994 called &quot;Heuristic Evaluation of User Interfaces, Jakob Nielsen, Sunsoft&quot;.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;vj346zm2128" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;vj346zm2128</a><p>He gave another one on October 4 1996 entitled &quot;Ensuring the Usability of the Next Computing Paradigm&quot;, but I can&#x27;t find it in the online collection, although it exists in the inventory of video recordings, however I can&#x27;t find any 1998 talks by Jakob Nielsen in this list:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oac.cdlib.org&#x2F;findaid&#x2F;ark:&#x2F;13030&#x2F;c82b926h&#x2F;entire_text&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oac.cdlib.org&#x2F;findaid&#x2F;ark:&#x2F;13030&#x2F;c82b926h&#x2F;entire_tex...</a><p>Here is the entire online collection (it&#x27;s kind of hard to search the 25 pages of the extensive collection, thanks to bad web site design!):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;catalog?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=a10637698" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;catalog?f%5Bcollection%5D%5...</a><p>The oldest (most interesting to me) ones are at the end (page 25):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=a10637698&amp;page=25" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;?f%5Bcollection%5D%5B%5D=a1...</a><p>Here are some of the older ones that I think are historically important and especially interesting (but there are so many I haven&#x27;t watched them all, so there are certainly more that are worth watching):<p>R. Carr, GO, &quot;Mobile Pen-based Computing&quot;, October 21, 1992:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;jm095fy2355" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;jm095fy2355</a><p>Cliff Nass, Computers Are Social Actors: A New Paradigm and Some Suprising Results [November 4, 1992]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;jh333ht2903" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;jh333ht2903</a><p>Unistrokes: Pen computing for experts, David Goldberg, Xerox PARC [November 5, 1993]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;gw943dj4628" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;gw943dj4628</a><p>Putting &quot;Feel&quot; into &quot;Look and Feel&quot;: Interaction with the Sense of Touch, Margaret Minsky, Interval Research [October 1, 1993]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;kk938rh3332" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;kk938rh3332</a><p>Harry Saddler &amp; L. Alba, Apple &amp; Albert Farris, &quot;Making It Macintosh: Interactive Media, Interpersonal Design&quot; [October 15, 1993]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;gs214qy7233" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;gs214qy7233</a><p>Design of New Media Interfaces, Joy Mountford [May 12, 1993]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;rm437wv9779" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;rm437wv9779</a><p>Animated Programs, Ken Kahn, Stanford CSLI [December 3, 1993]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;fk686sy4072" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;fk686sy4072</a><p>The Magic Lens Interface, Eric Bier, Xerox PARC [December 9, 1994]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;ss855db5288" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;ss855db5288</a><p>Proactive and Reactive Agents in User Interface, Ted Selker, IBM [April 29, 1994]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;pv655pr7635" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;pv655pr7635</a><p>Computing in the Year 2004, Bruce Tognazzini, Sunsoft [February 18, 1994]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;nf237zt2615" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;nf237zt2615</a><p>Andy Hertzfeld, General Magic, &quot;Magic Cap and Telescript&quot; [January 21, 1994]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;mp885xf4366" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;mp885xf4366</a><p>An Academic Discovers the Realities of Design, Don Norman, Apple Computer [December 2, 1994]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;dd753rg7554" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;dd753rg7554</a><p>Interfacing to Microworlds, Will Wright, Maxis [April 26, 1996]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;yj113jt5999" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;yj113jt5999</a><p>I was working with Terry Winograd at Interval Research at the time of this talk, which he invited me to attend, and I asked Will some skeptical questions, and his amazing in-depth answers convinced me to go to Maxis to work with him on the &quot;Dollhouse&quot; game he demonstrated. I uploaded the video to youtube and proofread the closed captions, and updated my description of the video:<p>Will Wright - Maxis - Interfacing to Microworlds - 1996-4-26:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=nsxoZXaYJSk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=nsxoZXaYJSk</a><p>&gt;Video of Will Wright&#x27;s talk about &quot;Interfacing to Microworlds&quot; presented to Terry Winograd&#x27;s user interface class at Stanford University, April 26, 1996.<p>&gt;He demonstrates and gives postmortems for SimEarth, SimAnt, and SimCity 2000, then previews an extremely early pre-release prototype version of Dollhouse (which eventually became The Sims), describing how the AI models personalities and behavior, and is distributed throughout extensible plug-in programmable objects in the environment, and he thoughtfully answers many interesting questions from the audience.<p>&gt;This is the lecture described in &quot;Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996)&quot;: A summary of Will Wright’s talk to Terry Winograd’s User Interface Class at Stanford, written in 1996 by Don Hopkins, before they worked together on The Sims at Maxis.<p>Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996) (2023 Video Update):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.medium.com&#x2F;designing-user-interfaces-to-simulation-games-bd7a9d81e62d" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.medium.com&#x2F;designing-user-interfaces-to-s...</a><p>&gt;A summary of Will Wright’s talk to Terry Winograd’s User Interface Class at Stanford, written in 1996 by Don Hopkins, before they worked together on The Sims at Maxis. Now including a video and snapshots of the original talk!<p>&gt;Will Wright, the designer of SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, and other popular games from Maxis, gave a talk at Terry Winograd’s user interface class at Stanford, in 1996 (before the release of The Sims in 2000).<p>&gt;At the end of the talk, he demonstrated an early version of The Sims, called Dollhouse at the time. I attended the talk and took notes, which this article elaborates on. [...]<p>Bringing Behavior to the Internet, James Gosling, SUN Microsystems [December 1, 1995]:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;bz890ng3047" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;searchworks.stanford.edu&#x2F;view&#x2F;bz890ng3047</a><p>I also uploaded this historically interesting video to youtube to generate closed captions and make it more accessible and findable, and I was planning on proofreading them like I did for this Will Wright talk, but haven&#x27;t gotten around to it yet (any volunteers? ;):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dgrNeyuwA8k" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dgrNeyuwA8k</a><p>This is an early talk by James Gosling on Java, which I attended and appeared on camera asking a couple questions about security (44:53, 1:00:35), and I also spotted Ken Kahn asking a question (50:20). Can anyone identify other people in the audience?<p>My questions about the “optical illusion attack” and security at 44:53 got kind of awkward, and his defensive &quot;shrug&quot; answer hasn&#x27;t aged too well! ;)<p>No hard feelings of course, since we’d known each other for years before (working on Emacs and NeWS) and we’re still friends, but I’d recently been working on Kaleida ScriptX, which lost out to Java in part because Java was touted as being so “secure”, and I didn’t appreciate how Sun was promoting Java by throwing the word “secure” around without defining what it really meant or what its limitations were (expecting people to read more into it than it really meant, on purpose, to hype up Java).

Nitpick: interesting how a UX website doesn’t let me resize it since the font is likely set via viewport units.

Nice! Thanks for sharing your wonderful journey in UX.

All you need is Nielsen, Norman, and Tufte.

How can you be happy that you did not join Apple in 1990?