Alright. I know I have issues with some things Don Norman has said. I know why he’s doing it: big, bold gurus need to make big, bold pronouncements.
I’d probably be doing it too if I was operating anywhere near his level. I respect the guy, and love his books. Heck, I’ve TAUGHT his books.
But his latest screed (which was also published in ACM Interactions) is beyond the pale. C’mon now…you’re complaining about your plush first-class cabin seat?!? Boo hoo. So you couldn’t figure out how to work the fancy gadgets while you’re enveloped in your cocoon-like fully-reclining berth, eh Don? I don’t have much empathy for you.
It comes across as a whine-fest. Frankly, I don’t think the piece reflects well on our field. And it’s SO out-of-touch with what us regular Jane’s and Joe’s in the field are doing (or experiencing).
I came late to the cult of Mac. I didn’t own my first Apple computer until 2003. I made up for lost time by disassembling, upgrading and tweaking a dizzying array of PowerBook G3′s and G4′s, iBooks, and PowerMacs (ranging from the old Beige G3′s to the snazzy G4′s). Never took apart a Cube though – but I’d sure like to…
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A few weeks ago the release of the UPA 2005 Salary Survey triggered a cross-blog discussion about salary differences between men and women in the user experience field.
Summing up: I was the author of the report (producing it is part of my duties as UPA VP and Director of Members and Sponsors). My writeup documented a salary differential between male and female survey respondents: median salary for males was 80K; for women, 72K. (Average salaries were 82.8K for men and 74.3K for women.)
In a rare instance of Jakob Nielsen lagging the discussion and not the other way around, Jakob posted some salary info of his own here.
In a comment posted to Webword I pledged to follow up on this issue with some additional analysis. I intentionally made that public commitment. I figured I’d be more likely to actually follow up if I said it in a public forum.
Thankfully, my UPA Board buddy Lyle Kantrovich helped out with these analyses. So give him props (and visit his blog).
So here’s what Lyle and I found:
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