Experience is the New Reality

Hmmmm, I wonder what Jakob Nielson would say about me posting this video? I mean, it's kind of interesting and I think the voice reminds me of Ricardo Montalban saying "Corinthian Leather" in the old Chrysler Cordoba ads.  But Jakob says blogs should contain articles—not blog posts, in order to maximize the chances of a blog being successful.  What's a Web author supposed to do?  I'm too tired to write an article.  Sometimes we just want to share something we recently saw (or experienced).  Sorry Jakob, next time I'll write an article.  In the meantime, enjoy the video.  It's a bit far fetched in a science fiction kind of way—but worth watching.  Be sure to watch to the end, that's where "experience is the new reality" comes in.

Tip of the hat to Benhamin

Comments

[Gavin Heaton]

Just because something is useable, or "utilitarian" doesn't make it engaging or capable of eliciting an emotional response. Sometimes, and often, I respond based on feeling, on desire or outrage. But rarely because of "ease" or "simplicity". These states do not speak to my state of mind nor my sense of place within a chaotic world. My experience of the world is something other than useful. And I expect brands, corporations and governments to at least acknowledge this. Or I seek alternatives that do.

[Jared M. Spool]

I think you need to stop picking on Jakob. He means well. He just doesn't really know better. :)

[DA]

Jared, no doubt Jakob means well. He's made a lot of huge contributions to usability related fields etc. But I'm sure he also knows how the game is played. Make bold statements and expect to be challenged. Happens to all of us.

This is my just my way of challenging his latest POV about blogging and making us think about it some more...

[Cam]

David - Just wondering. How does this square with your directive to all of us to not call ourselves "bloggers?"

There's a bit of nuance to Nielsen's article. He doesn't say blogs are never a good idea. It's not even clear to me that he's disparaging the platforms we use (although, given that he doesn't use one for his articles, he may be). What he does say is that his world-renowned expert colleague (I'm paraphrasing) should direct his energies in a more focused manner.

I think Nielsen makes a lot of strong points in favor of his position, but I think his definition of blogs is overly narrow, and his ability to communicate his point is limited by that same definition that he tries to share with his readers. Since the definitions differ with ours, we have difficulty accepting the premise... or even seeing his points.

Strangely, one might say that Nielsen's article is suffering from a usability problem. :)

[Sean Howard]

LOVE this video, DA!!

[DA]

Cam,

I see your points big time. I actually agreed with Jakob's larger message of delivering value. But as lengthy as his own post was to try to make the point, I felt his POV ended up coming across as an absolute with quite a few holes in it.

Seth's blog I think is a living contridiction to Jakob's hypothesis. The master of brevity has proven that value, reputation and readership has nothing to do with article-like content posted distributed via a blog.

PS, my "stop thinking of ourselves as bloggers" still rings true for me. I don't view Seth as a blogger as much as I do a brilliant communicator. I think he knows this and focuses more on the communication part and less on the "blogger" part.