Re:Hmm... look at this guy (Score 1)

I see where you're coming from. You're thinking of tailoring the user experience with a singular audience in mind, but web usability's goal is making it easier for anybody to find what they are looking for, as a whole. It's about architecture, layout, and making things logical and easier to find. (e.g. make buttons look like buttons, not statis text) After you accomplish that then you can add small nuances to make things look prettier to target a specific group or whatever, but without compromising usability. Websites should be designed in that order, not the other way around. Nielsen is all about usability, so I don't think it's appropriate to pick on how ugly his website looks. Most people who go to his website are looking for some info, not just browsing for someone's blog or whatever. They won't be turned off by the ugly colors because they're visiting the site with a specific goal to find some textual information.

Lets take flashing for example: it may be good if you WANT the user to look there, but for a user who is looking for something completely different or is browsing flashing things are just an annoyance. Just try and find me some flashing element on a major website. The goal for many major companies and organizations is to satisfy as large of an audience as possible and to avoid pissing off as large of an audience as possible. With flashing, it may be useful for some, but it will ultimately be an annoyance to many others as well.

Also read the about section on his page about why he has no images.