Revealed: The world's Top Ten User Experience Gurus

From the econsultancy /Bunnyfoot Usability and User Experience Report 2007:


As part of a recent usability research exercise, respondents named their favourite gurus in the field of user experience, with the aim of producing a Hall of Fame.

For those who haven't seen the Usability and User Experience Report 2007, published this week in association with Bunnyfoot, we can now reveal the top 10 experts in this field - ranked by the number of survey respondents who mentioned their names (or their books).

Our Hall of Fame ....

1) Jakob Nielsen
2) Steve Krug
3) Jared Spool
4) Donald Norman
5) Jeffrey Veen
6) Jesse James Garrett
7) Louis Rosenfeld
8) Jenifer Tidwell
9) Seth Godin
10) Eisenberg brothers

Of course, this isn't meant to be an objective assessment of who is the "best" user experience expert, but it does give an idea of how well established these people are in the field - and how successful they have been in getting their ideas into the consciousness of the wider internet design and marketing communities.

Given that we surveyed more than 700 people with an interest in usability and user experience, we feel this is a pretty good indication of those with the highest-profile personalities.

Jakob Nielsen, interviewed recently by E-consultancy, came top of the list. No surprises there although several respondents explicitly said that they did not rate him.

According to Wikipedia: “Nielsen is a leading web usability pundit, with an expertise based on human factors engineering, but he has earned the ire of graphic designers … for failing to balance the importance of other user experience considerations such as eye appeal.”

In second place - though with half as many nominations - came Steve Krug, a usability consultant and author of Don't Make Me Think, a book which was commonly cited as an excellent reference tool.

Also on the podium, in bronze medal position, was Jared M Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering, a research and consulting firm specialising in website and product usability. He was also one of the authors of the book Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide.

Associated Link: More details and biographies of the world's top 10 user experience gurus

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