The original Mac was a great step forward from the previous PC interfaces,” he says.”The iMac is none of the above. Its only innovation is to look better and come in multiple colours. That’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t solve any of the real usability problems with personal computers.” Nielsen’s not just critical of Apple, though. “These days, PCs, by which I refer to both Windows 2000 and Macintosh, simply do not have a [user interface] that is capable of helping users manage the flood of information that is inundating us.”Nielsen is confident his work will never be done.

“I’ve been doing the same thing for almost 20 years now,” he says. “The world has changed: the Web has become big and important.”‘Designing Web Usability’, by Jakob Nielsen, New Riders Publishing. Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman will speak at Design for Usability: Beyond ‘User Friendly’ on 3 April. Phone 01737 780150 or e-mail booking design-agenda .uk for more information. I am not a computer buff but an entrepreneur, and I’ve been involved in the music industry for the last 20 years. I’ve done graphic design, been a club disc jockey, worked at Our Price and written to every publisher, every studio and every record company trying to get in on any level, but it is with the Internet that I’ve met people working on a new frontier.

I am not a computer buff but an entrepreneur, and I’ve been involved in the music industry for the last 20 years. I’ve done graphic design, been a club disc jockey, worked at Our Price and written to every publisher, every studio and every record company trying to get in on any level, but it is with the Internet that I’ve met people working on a new frontier.
My second independent label, Aegean Records, was the first to sell music online. Nearly all of the people involved with it have either gone on to bring successful products to the Internet or been swallowed up by the bigger players. They have been successful either way.I first started to think about going online with Aegean after I bought my first Apple Mac, employed a tutor and went back to school to learn how they work It gave me insight into the Internet But people still weren’t ready for e-commerce. That was back in ‘96, and it has come a long way since then.It wasn’t easy to get people to tap in credit details online and it wasn’t as secure as everyone had hoped.

There were silly little mistakes; no one was really set up to fill in orders, so they sometimes got the orders wrong.But because my cousin George Michael was on the label, he was an excellent calling card. So we got good deals with Liquid Audio, who at that stage still needed a showcase like George to help to promote their software.It has been interesting to see how the people involved started off wanting to be in the music industry but have since carved out careers in the Internet world. That shows how much the two industries are crossing over.When I left Aegean, about a year and half ago, I wanted to carry on in the dot business. I work for the Mezzanine leisure group, and have set up mezzmusic , and initiated the Intranet in their clubs for webcast broadcasts.Again, I’ve found myself setting a precedent because the website is the first music site outside North America to charge for MP3 downloads.