Jakob Nielsen (usability consultant): Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Jakob Nielsen (Born 1957 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a writer, speaker, and consultant on software and web-design usability. He earned a Ph.D. in user interface design and computer science from the Technical University of Denmark. Nielsen worked at Bellcore, IBM, and as a senior researcher at computer company Sun Microsystems. He subsequently co-founded usability consulting company Nielsen Norman Group with fellow usability expert Donald Norman.

Jakob Nielsen is generally regarded as the leading authority on usability. He is noted for his (often stern) criticisms of popular websites, pointing out how he feels many concentrate too heavily on gimmicky features such as animation, Flash, and graphics at the expense of usability, particularly for disabled visitors. Nielsen writes a fortnightly newsletter on web design matters and has published several books on the subject of web design.

His published books include:

• Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity (ISBN 156205810X)
• Usability Engineering (ISBN 0125184069)
• Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed (ISBN 073571102X)