It’s interesting to note that in some Nielsen’s articles he points that his methodology is mostly influenced by the same Norman you point in your gold age adagio. So, Norman changed his mind? Probably. 20-years difference there. It’s possible that his previous research did not held itself. It happens. You can just throw out 20 years of research if the data don’t move ahead. You can always start again.

Also, I read in one of Norman’s article that he likes to move from subject to subject in a range of 5 to 10 years.

In my approach to usability, my focus is on user research and iteration: doesn’t matter if I will use contextual inquiry, in-depth interviews, heuristics analyses. My focus is on providing my clients with data that helps him understanding their user (and also their business) needs. The core of the usability: user needs. Just simple.

I guess your angry, just like mine in 2 years ago, is about how people approach usability from a theory point of view. People that do not notice that usability is about testing will just hush to guidelines and says “that is usability. Nielsen said”. But he also said that you need to do you own tests.

I am not in defense of Nielsen. I am in defense of better understanding of the surroundings (research).

ps: I will retweet your post.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by UXTweets: Usability Driven Off Track by Jakob Nielsen: http://bit.ly/77uYFk...

You simply cannot just have a checklist and turn down any approach which doesn’t meet with every point on it. Context is everything. Good usability specialists understand this.