2007 seems to be landmark year for definitive lists. There’s the New Seven Wonders of the World, The AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies, and then there’s the Top Ten User Experience Gurus from the the Usability and User Experience Report 2007 from E-consultancy and Bunnyfoot.
The list goes in order of survey responses:
- Jakob Nielsen – The Ulitimate Usability pundit and author. He virtually brought usability mainstream. He also contributed to heuristic evaluation and usability evaluation methods.
- Steve Krug – His book “Don’t MakeMe Think” is the easiest to use and read. His approach to usability is more layman-oriented.
- Jared Spool – Co-authored “Web Site Usability: A Designer’s Guide.“
- Donald Norman – Usability research pioneer. He wrote “The Design of Everyday Things” and “Emotional Design.”
- Jeffrey Veen – Adaptive Path co-founder and author of “The Art & Science of Web Design.”
- Jesse James Garrett – Information Architecture guru. He also coined the term “AJAX”
- Louis Rosenfeld – Information Architecture consultant, co-author of “Information Architecture.”
- Jenifer Tidwell – Top Interaction Designer and author of “Designing Interfaces.”
- Seth Godin – Best-selling author and advocate of user-centered marketing.
- Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg – Acclaimed authors of best sellers “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?” and “Call to Action.”
The list is arguably definitive, but it’s too bad a personal fave of mine Peter Morville (of Information Architecture distinction) is not on the list. To be honest I’m not all too familiar with the Eisenberg Brothers’ body of work. So if you ask me, I’ll plug Peter Morville on that list.
