rcmnd

Jakob Nielsen

Usability specialist and co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; author of the Alertbox column on web usability.

8 things

Office 2007Software

liked

Office 2007 is a good improvement over the old, crusty Office UI.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

SnagItSoftware TechSmith

liked

Interestingly, Snagit is one of the several other applications to adopt the "ribbon" style UI, which makes that more pleasant to use as well.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

MoraeSoftware

uses

Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Office 2007, Photoshop Elements, Snagit (for screenshots), Morae (for user testing videos), Skype.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

Dell 30-inch monitorHardware

uses

Dell 30-inch monitor (2560x1600 pixels)

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

Acer Ferrari 5000-5832Hardware

mixed

Laptop: Acer Ferrari 5000-5832. Ridiculous co-branding, because cars and laptops have nothing to do with each other, but it is a powerful machine for travel use.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

PhotoshopSoftware Adobe

mixed

On the other hand, I continue to find Photoshop unintuitive, though it has made me more productive to downgrade from the full edition to the more limited Elements edition. A good example of the less is more usability maxim.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

VistaSoftware

mixed

I always liked the Vista UI vision, but the reality wasn't as good.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

AlienwareHardware

disliked

My Alienware is disappointingly noisy, even though I paid extra for having it sound-proofed and watercooled.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the Windows machines he runs usability studies on.

usesthis.com ↗·2009-06-13

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The small bar beside a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The bar shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Full and green is recent. It drains, and turns amber and then grey, as the post gets older.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The bar is empty after about:

A striped bar means the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no bar.