ForeverMissed
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Tributes
March 31, 2023
March 31, 2023
It seems hard to believe how much time has passed. I still see in my mind's eye Nigel's friendly, smiling face.
March 30, 2023
March 30, 2023
It really doesn't seem like all that time has passed already - I still can't quite believe that Nigel is no longer with us. He is missed.

My thoughts are with his family at this time of the year.
March 30, 2023
March 30, 2023
Nigel is still missed at ISO meetings, especially his energetic championing of usability issues. Rest with the angels my friend.
March 29, 2023
March 29, 2023
5 years on and Nigel is still sadly missed. 
Thanks to all those that posted such wonderful pictures!
March 28, 2022
March 28, 2022
Thinking of Nigel’s family at this time and remembering him on this Anniversary.
March 28, 2022
March 28, 2022
It still seems like just a year or so ago we were sharing dinners in Mexico City and debating issues in ISO standards. I will always miss Nigel.
April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021
It really doesn't seem like 3 years. RIP, Nigel. My wishes to all his family.
March 30, 2020
March 30, 2020
Two years without Nigel's humor, wit, knowledge, and kind interest. May his memory be a blessing to all who knew and loved him.
March 27, 2020
March 27, 2020
Remembering Nigel at this time of year. May he rest in peace.
March 27, 2020
March 27, 2020
Nigel, two years have passed, and your face is still smiling ...
March 27, 2019
March 27, 2019
A year after his passing, Nigel's influence on international standards is still very large....and we miss his cheerful and energetic presence at the meetings.
March 27, 2019
March 27, 2019
On this first anniversary of his death, I am still sad that I shall never see him again. I am glad for the tributes of others and the shared memories of this fine human being.
July 18, 2018
July 18, 2018
Happy Birthday, Nigel. We remember you fondly.....
June 5, 2018
June 5, 2018
I have just finished my third meeting without Nigel. I was waiting until I really felt his absence before writing this posting. In all three meetings his absence was greatly felt. Nigel challenged us all to consider all possibilities to be sure that our guidance was good. And instead of just challenging us, he provided us with lots of examples and positive suggestions. We all missed that. He also led us to excellent restaurants, and in many other ways that we also miss. He was a good friend and a good standardizer. I miss him.
May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018
For some 20-30 years, I would see Nigel around the world at conferences. He was always there, in South Africa, Japan, China, the US, Canada, Greece...It always made me happy to see him. He was always cordial, kind, interested, amiable, intelligent....and had a good sense of humor. I shall miss him very much.
May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018
I was saddened to hear that Nigel had met with such a serious accident so far from home. Nigel and I worked together on the first BCS HCI committee and in running HCI conferences national and international in the subsequent years. Nigel was a terrific influence, motivating us all in these new ventures. He also had productive links with our MSc Ergonomics course at UCL and arranged for NPL to sponsor placements for our students, one of whom was Steve Howard (later Professor of HCI in Australia). Nigel was one of the founding fathers of HCI in the UK and he will be sorely missed.
May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018
Sadly it has been far too many years since our paths last crossed, but I still remember you well. You will always be Mr Standards for me, and I half imagine you now taking out a tape measure inside the coffin to check the dimensions are right. You are missed.
April 30, 2018
April 30, 2018
The word 'User' was a unknown word in the early 80's. Car drivers were drivers (assumed to be men) and housewives (assumed to be women) used kitchen equipment but only engineers, technicians and those in 'the know' used computer equipment: they were the user, not everyday people. I was a rather experimental 'Ergonomist'. I wanted to influence, to change the way things were done. I was happy to take risks. Nigel was more conventional than me but was prepared to take a chance on me and my methods.

The story starts with Dr Ivan Brown at the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge. He was asked for contributions to the evolving term of Information Technology or IT as it came to be known. The National Electronics Council wanted to create a report* and he asked me to join the committee. Nigel wasn't on the committee but his colleague Ian Umbers, from the Dept of Industry was.

I made the report a glossy affair and it had a Forward by the Duke of Kent** and tons of recommendations for different national organisations. Although Nigel isn't mentioned as being in the editorial group this report set the scene for the formation of the British Computer Society (BCS) Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Special Interest Group.

We were both determined to make it's first conference BCS HCI85 a success. Academic conferences, at that time, were monologue events: programme committees created the structure based on their view of the subject: at the end of each session,attendees were given the chance to ask questions. In a revolutionary move, Nigel gave me four goals for the conference to achieve: thus making it a Strategic rather than a Scientific event. I recruited participants who called themselves 'Goalies'. These intrepid souls attended sessions of their choice and collectively reported back in the daily final plenary session and integrated their views with spontaneous reactions from all the other attendees. 

The goalies had lunch with me which enabled them to bounce ideas off each other. This conference was indeed different. It was what was needed at the time and Nigel delivered. That conference contributed to the emerging professional scene which influenced the Alvey Programme where I subsequently organised 5 Research Planning workshops on Voice Recognition, Pattern Recognition, Human Factors, Man/Computer Interaction and one other.

All this was possible because Nigel had the courage to trust me. He decided to break the rigid format of previous Scientific Conferences. That conference and those workshops illustrated what the UK Academics could do if they worked together, shared their thoughts, ideas and concepts outwith the confines of their establishments/universities. Nigel was in the right place: the National Physical Laboratory NPL. He had the clout, the knowledge and the authority to change the way people ... Users ... were viewed by the Computer Industry. It was a message that Steve Jobs and the early Apple folk absorbed easily but not so the emerging computer establishment. They needed national and international standards to encourage them and this is what he and Tom Stewart did through their tireless subsequent efforts.
Sadly in 1989 my career was brought to a nasty end when a drunk driver nearly killed me at 08.30 one September day ... so I never met Nigel again but I am still in touch with Jonathan Earthy and Brain Sherwood Jones who were two of the goalies.

Nigel was a very respected British Scientific civil servant who served his country and his subject to the best of his ability. May he rest in peace.
...
* A scanned version of this report is available upon request.
** This is what he said ... 'Information Technology Year' (1982) has reminded many people in this country that we are standing now on the threshold of a technological revolution. The changes we
can expect to see during the next five to ten years seem likely to be even more dramatic than those brought about
by the first Industrial Revolution. Hardly anyone will avoid being affected in some way by the new technology and it is clear that society will need to reshape itself to meet this challenge.
April 30, 2018
April 30, 2018
I first met Nigel at the first British HCI Conference in 1985, which he had initiated as the first chair of the British Computer Society (BCS) Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Specialist Group (SG). I joined the BCS HCI SG Executive Committee as meetings secretary. Nigel was very proactive in helping me to plan my new role and deliver a busy meetings programme. We both remained involved in running BCS HCI SG for a decade and a half, after which Nigel focused on the Usability Professionals Association (UPA, now UXPA), alongside his international standards work.

In 2007, Nigel was invited to be an expert within the MAUSE COST Action, a European network on Usability. Nigel continued to collaborate within the follow on TwinTide network on design and evaluation methods. HCI research had moved on considerably since Nigel refocused on the UPA, but he quickly embraced new thinking on design strategies and the nature of design and evaluation methods. He consulted MAUSE action members on new HCI standards and brought his outstanding drafting expertise to bear on the 2010 Dagstuhl White Paper on User Experience (UX, www.allaboutux.org), where Nigel and I wrote the section on temporal aspects of UX. Over the course of 25 years I often benefited from Nigel's professional approach to management and his efficient approaches to getting things done. 

As one of Nigel's successors as a former Chair of BCS HCI SG, I very much value the foundations that Nigel laid squarely and firmly for British HCI. As a management team member for both the MAUSE and TwinTide COST actions, I valued Nigel's links through to international standards and the wisdom that he brought to collaborative authoring of documents.

My last interactions with Nigel were last year when he was planning a new European COST action on Kansei Engineering. At an age when most of us would be enjoying our retirement, Nigel was no less proactive, enthusiastic and committed than he was over 30 years ago when I first worked with him. The UXPA and HCI standards communities will sorely miss Nigel's energy, expertise and dedication.
April 27, 2018
April 27, 2018
Although I have known Nigel since his early days with the visionary Chris Evans at the National Physical Laboratory, most of my contact with him has been through national and international standards. These standards have addressed various aspects of human-computer interaction and one of Nigel’s most significant contributions (during his many years of enthusiastic participation) was as project editor for ISO 9241 part 11 Guidance on Usability. This standard has been widely adopted and forms the basis for many further standards. 

However, as anyone who has ever travelled with Nigel will know, he always took advantage of any travel opportunities to seek out adventures, often involving complex and detailed travel arrangements. I guess it is not surprising that his untimely end should have involved just such an adventure. 

However, one of my favourite memories was when the ISO committee which I chaired was invited to China in 1987 and the hosts invited us to participate in a post meeting tour of such icons as the Great Wall, the Shaolin Temple and the Terracotta warriers. However, they had not arranged anything for our first evening in Beijing – an oversight Nigel was quick to remedy. With considerable persistence and persuasion (traits well known to his colleagues), Nigel organised an outing to an astonishing acrobatic circus performance. Luckily I was accompanied by my wife and children and I can honestly say it was one of the highlights of the trip. We still talk about it, 40 years on.

The world of ergonomics and usability standards will miss Nigel greatly and I wish to pass on to his family the deepest condolences from the UK Applied Ergonomics Committee (PH9).

Tom Stewart
Chair BSI Applied Ergonomics Committee PH9
Chair ISO TC159 SC4 Ergonomics of Human-System Interaction (from 1983 to 2017)
April 26, 2018
April 26, 2018
Vårt liv är en vindfläkt, en saga, en dröm
En droppe som faller i tidernas ström
Den skimrar i regnbågens färg en minut
brister och faller och drömmen är slut
- Nils Ferlin

Rest in peace, Nigel
April 23, 2018
April 23, 2018
I was totally devastated when I heard what's happened… I still cannot believe that it happened, just a few days following KEER'18!
I well remember our talks at Kuching, and during the past events...and when Nigel took the leadership for COST action, in order to find the best way to step-up our European Kansei Group.

I am very impressed by the way, You, his family, are sharing with us, courageously, all your positive words, and memories, with pride on his challenging mindset beyond your private sadness for this loss …
We mill miss him !
April 23, 2018
April 23, 2018
I have only started interacting with Nigel in 2016 on research related topics but this has been more that enough time to feel the positive energy he was able to transmit to people. His dynamism, openness and kindness left a mark on me and I will remember him for this.

Family and friends, please accept my most sincere condolences.
April 20, 2018
April 20, 2018
I can not believe it, it was a shock. The last email I exchange with Nigel was on November 29th. He was a great person, very supportive, patient and kind. I am in the sorrow of my loss. Nigel was a great pleasure to know you. Hugs ...!!!!
April 17, 2018
April 17, 2018
I worked with Nigel at NPL and also at Serco Usability Services. He was a highly knowledgable colleague, great memory for detail and of course well travelled with lots of interesting stories of far off places. So sorry to hear about his passing, and my thoughts go out to the family.
April 15, 2018
April 15, 2018
I had the pleasure of working with Nigel on the BSI PH09 committee, it was quite a shock to hear of his passing, my condolences to the family, he will be sorely missed...
April 13, 2018
April 13, 2018
I will remember Nigel as a gentleman, competent and dedicated. I learned a lot from him on usability and ISO standards.
April 11, 2018
April 11, 2018
Nigel and I first met and worked together on The Alvey Programme back in 1983. He was always both knowledgeable and courteous. It was much later that our paths crossed again on the ISO/BSI Committee PH9 for Ergonomics. He was just as courteous and capable as ever. He will be missed by many as colleague and friend.
April 11, 2018
April 11, 2018
I worked with Nigel at NPL in the 1980s and 90s. I remember him for his enthusiasm for usability and standards, his ability to pull together international groups of professionals, and of course his love of travel. My favourite memory is of him guiding several members of our team on a hike up a very hot and dusty mountain in Crete after a meeting discussing usability standards. He will be sadly missed.
April 11, 2018
April 11, 2018
Nigel is my good mentor and friend for more than 20 years. It is him who led me into the field of usability around 1996-1997. I still remember vividly that a sunny afternoon in the autumn 1997, I received a big plastic envelop mailed from him at a department meeting that contains a bunch of printed materials on usability and user-centered design. We met each other for the very first time at INTERACT’1999 in Edinburgh where at a dinner he introduced me to try Scottish haggis. Soon after that he visited us in Dalian and Beijing in November-December the same year. He helped us involved, as a non-EU partner, in UsabilityNet (http://www.usabilitynet.org/about.htm) - an EU Fifth Framework Program project coordinated by him, which led Sino-European Usability Center founded in 2000 as the first usability engineering center in China. This contributed greatly to the start and dissemination of user experience practice in this country.
April 11, 2018
April 11, 2018
Nigel was very generous to me with his advice and guidance in relation to international standards. The world is a better place for his work on usability.
April 10, 2018
April 10, 2018
I last saw Nigel at an ISO meeting in Mexico City last November where we were revising the software product quality model and having a grand time. We shared many dinners, laughing and telling travel stories. His influence will be lasting in the extraordinary contributions he made to international standards for usability. And I will miss him greatly.

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