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Comment by systemtrigger | Hacker News Reader

I'm in the wrong section of the industry apparently. I have been focusing my efforts on building technology when what I should have been doing is writing blog articles about user interface design. I suspect many more people will buy the $198 paper being sold here than have ever purchased software written by me. That is not to indulge in self pity but I can't help wondering if changing my name to Nielsen and sharing my observations about skeuomorphism and rescaled design would be a better investment of my time than writing code.

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I don't really understand what your actually criticizing here. Are you upset that you aren't making enough at your current position? Are you upset that a group that specifically focuses on conducting user experience research is selling their results for a price that you don't want to pay for it? Do you not feel as though their work is valid enough to justify charging for it, even though they've been an established group within the field of user experience for years?

I am saying it seems much easier to write about compelling user experiences than to create them, and given the price they are charging for their product it makes me wonder if I should be writing papers about user experiences instead of programming them.

Well, try it then. It actually isn't that easy. Sure, everyone can try to write something about design. But that is not what Nielsen is selling, mere writing. Not everyone can back his writing up with self-conducted user studies, for which one needs (a lot of) time, money (the equipment alone) and people. This is what generates the value of those reports.

Then you should be creating $198 papers and hoping someone buys them.

EDIT: It's easy to be dismissive of a company, occupation or field of business. Nielsen just happened to at the right place when the web became big as a commercial medium (mid-1990s) and if they get to sell expensive papers, it's because their expertise is seen by user experience designers and marketing professionals as useful.

Perhaps you would sell more software with better marketing, which, in a way, is what the people buying those papers hope to achieve.

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