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Design by fire: Gurus vs. Bloggers, in which the sites of the web usability gurus and the sites of popular bloggers are judged head-to-head.

The results hardly surprise me. The bloggers may not be “internationally recognized usability gurus” but they have a couple large advantages:

1. They use their own sites on a daily basis. I doubt Neilsen or Norman are up to their elbows in the NN/g site every day.
2. Bloggers (esp. the popular ones) have a constantly running focus group with a built-in feedback loop: readers, their blogs, and the blogger’s comment form. If something on the site sucks, the blogger hears about it.

I’m sure a more complete analysis of the contest could be made, but these are some initial thoughts.