Joseph, This might just be an argument in semantics, but I do think that your view of usability is a reductionist one. If a usability test does not test a user's ability to accomplish a goal using the system under question, what does it test? If a usability test exposes that users hate the system (or love the system) for whatever reason, does that not contribute to that system's usability? When I think of usability, I don't think of it exclusively as an evaluative function. In fact, the 'design first,' 'evaluate later,' paradigm has not been proven very effective in practice, which is why we're seeing a blurring of lines between traditional usability and design disciplines.
I think Jared has it right when he says that usability is a quality of design. Perhaps what we are really talking about is user experience, which seems to be displacing the term usability in many contexts because it does have broader connotations. But I don't see how you can separate usability and design. When we do interaction design, we strive to design the system to be usable, to work well for the purpose that it is being designed for. And when we do visual design, in addition to aesthetics, we think about issues such as, let's say, visual weight, that do affect usability. The final product design will affect the user experience, which can range from hate to love, frustration to delight. I am not saying that it's necessary for a system be delightful to be usable, but it might be required, if users won't use it otherwise. Lastly I cannot resist bringing up this book... Designing Pleasurable Products: An Introduction to the New Human Factors http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Pleasurable-Products-Introduction-Factors/dp/0415298873 -eva (crawling back into my usability hole) > Eva, > > It seems to me that you are expanding the meaning of usability to include > anything good. It becomes fun-ability, can-accomplish-goals-ability, > maps-to-workflow-ability, responsiveness-to-users-needs-ability and so on. I > prefer to think these are all elements of good design but are not subsets of > usability. A website can pass usability tests with flying colors but not > include these other qualities. > Joseph Selbie > Founder, CEO Tristream > Web Application Design > http://www.tristream.com -- Eva Kaniasty http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaniasty ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
