UX 500: one week on

It’s been a fascinating week for us looking at the response to our Peer Index list: UX500. The list has so far attracted over 9,000 visits – and plenty of lively comment out in the Twittersphere.
 

The negative
We have seen a fair bit of comment along the lines of “This is rubbish; my own list of top UX people would be very different.”

I’d like to point out (again) that the list isn’t meant to be a definitive World League of UX practitioners. Good luck to whoever tries to compile that one; watch out for horses’ heads in your bed.

What it is, in fact, is a list of people and organisations that are active on social media platforms and who are influential on the subject of user experience. And it’s compiled using a tool, Peer Index, which is good but not perfect.

When I introduced the list in my blog last week I did toy with the idea of including the words: “It’s only a bit of fun. Try not to take it too seriously.” Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
 

The positive
We also picked up quite a lot of comment along the lines of “This is interesting; might be useful”.

As far as we’re concerned the list has opened up our own view of the UX world. It’s been fun having people in Spain, Canada and several other countries tip us off about people who are interesting and influential in their part of the world. In only a week we’ve been able to find new voices and form new relationships which I know will be valuable in the future.

We hope the list will give you the same opportunity. If it helps you find just one new source of ideas or inspiration to help make your professional life better then we’ll be happy.
 

02/08/11 Mat Walker said:

If nothing else its been interesting to see my meteoric rise (and fall) from the list. I started at 75th then rose to the lofty heights of 25th before plummeting back down to 148th (which is probably where I should have been from the outset!).