peterme.com

Links, thoughts, and essays from Peter Merholz

Jakob Jumps The Shark

Posted on | February 14, 2007 | 9 Comments

Jakob Shark

In the distant past, I would laud Jakob when he was being pilloried by the masses. But then, Jakob’s brand of rhetoric moved away from reasoned discussion of design, and he started venturing into areas he has no expertise in, such as ROI. Scott Hirsch and I tore apart his pathetically flimsy “Usability ROI” report, as it had no grounding in anything resembling financial practice.

And then, more recently, I’ve objected to his essays where he makes specious claims seemingly for the sole purpose of puffing up his events, and his comments that suggest he hasn’t appreciated how the Web has evolved in the last 6 years.

But, wow, what a last straw is his latest essay, where he claims “In one example, a state agency could get an ROI of 22,000% by fixing a basic usability problem.” If he hadn’t jumped the shark before, he really has now. He backs this outrageous claim with a remarkably naive cost-benefit analysis, the kind of financial fiddling that no serious finance director within any organization would believe. (At Adaptive Path we actually conducted research with a range of organizations on how they do such math, and these kinds of multiplying-lots-of-little-numbers-to-make-a-big-number kind of math never holds water.)

I wouldn’t write about it except that I fear that Jakob is turning into a pernicious force when it comes to advancing the field of design, because his reach means tens of thousands of people are reading this unsubstantiated crap. Such outrageous claims truly feel like the wild flailings of increasing irrelevance.

8 years ago, the web had two usability prophets – Jakob and Jared. Had you asked me to place bets on which one was worthier to follow, I would have said Jakob (UIE’s “Web Site Usability” book pissed me off). But in the last 4 or 5 years, Jakob has receded to the point of almost total irrelevance, whereas Jared and his gang are pursuing important and interesting questions, and never making specious claims about what they’ve found. Ditch alertbox and subscribe to Brain Sparks.

Comments

9 Responses to “Jakob Jumps The Shark”

  1. Putting people first » Adaptive Path president takes aim at Jakob Nielsen
    February 14th, 2007 @ 11:43 pm

    [...] Read full post   Leave a Reply [...]

  2. World wide woe « Lee Morris
    March 3rd, 2007 @ 2:10 pm

    [...] World wide woe Posted March 3, 2007 Peter Merholz hits the nail on the head here. Jakob truly is living in his own little world, where usability is king and everything else can just go to hell.  His website oozes conceited, self important trash that really doesn’t live up to the the lofty heights he portrays himself (high resolution images of himself on his own website….). [...]

  3. free big tit video
    March 27th, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
  4. Putting People First in italiano » Il presidente di Adaptive Path prende di mira Jakob Nielsen
    April 17th, 2007 @ 2:10 am

    [...] Leggi il post   Scrivi un commento [...]

  5. Fioricet online.
    November 22nd, 2007 @ 3:40 pm

    Buy fioricet online that ships to missouri….

    Buy fioricet online that ships to missouri….

  6. джaн
    February 28th, 2009 @ 6:49 pm

    Благодарю. Давно такое искал :)

  7. Kir
    August 22nd, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
  8. Heel
    October 29th, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
  9. Halo
    February 9th, 2010 @ 9:05 pm

Leave a Reply





  • Linkblog

  • Better Tag Cloud

    payment gateway

    ctx payments

    ach clearinghouse

    electronic check payment

    ach stands for

    ach processing company

    ach payment process

    ach processing software

    ach transaction codes

    ach process

    direct deposit

    ach cash

    ach direct payments

    key bank national association ach department

    ach return code

    online check deposit

    ach bank account

    ach bank term

    ach credit cards

    bangkok bank ach

    ach transfer cost

    check conversion

    ach banking

    unauthorized ach

    ach push

    ach addenda

    ach eft

    ach network banks

    ach bank routing

    international ach transaction

    eft services

    ach merchant

    ach ccd

    payment solutions

    bank ach policy

    ach debit payment

    republic bank ach

    ach format

    what does ach stand for in banking

    ach unauthorized

    bank ach transfers

    what is an ach transfer

    bank of internet ach

    debit ach

    ach direct

    ach origination

    ach service

    ach bank to bank

    process ach payments

    ach reversal

    head ach

    ach system

    ach rules online

    ach credit

    ach originator

    ach payments fraud

    ach payment method

    what is the difference between ach and wire transfer

    ach bank code

    ach bank draft

    ach direct debit

    bank of the west ach

    ach check processing

    ach payment format

    what is ach bank

    federal reserve bank ach

    ach authorization

    ach gateway

    ach electronic payments

    ach helmet

    rck ach

    ach application

    ach acronym

    ach wiki

    ach deposit

    electronic fund transfer

    payments via ach

    ach prenote

    ach corp

    ach payment processing

    ach loan payments

    ach stock

    ach information

    union bank of california ach

    ach transfer limits

    ach credit payment

    accepting ach payments

    360 ach

    electronic ach transfer

    ach account transfer

    ach fund transfer

    ach bank transfers

    ach nacha

    fedwire ach

    ach checks

    ach payment

    ach transfer fee

    ach merchant account

    forced post ach

    electronic check processing

    what is ach payment processing

    ach returns

    ach payment services

    bounced checks

    electronic payment

    stop ach payments

    electronic payment services

    ach transfer wikipedia

    define ach payment

    ach funds

    international ach payments

    what is a ach transfer

    ach payment wikipedia

    ach org

    nacha software

    ach transfer times

    define ach

    nacha payments

    ach code

    electronic check payments

    ach clearing

    stop ach payment

    ach n lou\'s

    send ach payment

    ach eod processing

    what does ach mean in banking

    accept ach payments

    ach bank information

    automated clearing house payments

    community bank ach

    ach origination software

    ach payment solutions

    ach systems

    ach transfer form

    bank ach routing numbers

    what is ach account

    ach tax payments

    ach bank fraud

    ach remittance

    ach transfer wiki

    ach stop payment

    ach payment system

    ach auto debit

    ach meaning

    ach in banking

    international ach transactions

    ach company

    ach bank account number

    compass bank ach

    setting up ach payments

    echecks

    what is ach transfer