Hi Jared, re: "usability" I said how I'm thinking of it. It is rooted in my pretty broad experience of practice, my reading of peers case studies (the ones they make available to me) and my listening to presentations. It's all I got. I do not see anyone practicing the kind of usability practice or creating a qualitative measure of usability as part of a usability practice the way you are describing, so despite the source, which I respect, it just doesn't match anything I see, read, or otherwise experience. So I'm sticking with my efficiency + success (maybe + learnability) definition of usability.
As to the examples. The clearest one in my mind is well the iPhone. The keyboard lacks all manner of efficiency, yet it is part of a beautify system that increases pain tolerances for the pains of that keyboard. The system's overall experiential aesthetics of engagement trump the usability of the poor experience of the keyboard. I can think of a host of systems where the experience of the content (I.e. the value embedded in the aesthetics of the content system) totally trumps the usability of that system. As to Craigslist, the love is wearing off w/ that most heinous of ugly and unusable sites. It has survived on the strength of approachability + critical mass of content b/c there was nothing like it for so long, but so many other new services are making craigslist the secondary choice for more and more people. Again, I can define usability and aesthetics to be synonyms if i was so inclined. This making the line item useless ... But the point is not to re-define for the person putting out the principles, but to analyze them within the boundaries of their use. Further I have to say that I'm annoyed (this isn't personal to anyone) by the tendency that people engage in just a point that spirals out of control, and then loosing site of the whole message or the whole thread. the concept of "principles" in your design is much more important than a single line item in either mine or Thomas' list. a better response would be here are mine and here's how they differ from yours and why? If you don't design, but promote design education or design theories, then what principles are important to your work? -- dave -- dave On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Jared Spool <[email protected]> wrote: > Not sure I see the contention between usability and aesthetics. Maybe you > could give an example from one of your experiences? > > I see usability as a scalar attribute, measured from Extreme Frustration to > Extreme Delight. Efficiency and success rates really only talk to the > frustration portion of the scale. Engagement (both with the design and their > corresponding brands, thus expanding into the 'experience' aspects) > increases as you move past the neutral center (neither frustrating nor > delighting) and focus on design elements that enhance delight. > > Limiting usability to only deal with the frustration portion of the scale > would be equivalent, in my opinion, to limiting aesthetics to color > palettes. > > I think we can agree that a very beautiful, yet extremely frustrating design > would be unacceptable. But, I'm not sure how you'd create an extremely ugly, > yet extremely delightful design. > > At some point the aesthetics must become integrated into the design, along > with the functionality, to create the delight. > > Also, I believe that at some point, aesthetics become personal and > contextual. Many users are delighted with Craigslist (surprisingly so!). > While its clear that an aesthetic makeover would be easy to do with > Craigslist current design, would it truly enhance the experience of those > users who are already delighted? > > I believe that the only way a makeover could truly bring more value to > Craigslist's users would be if it was very carefully tuned by bringing out > capabilities currently hidden by the current (lack of) aesthetic > presentation. Yet, because of the simplicity of the overall functional set, > those capabilities would need be tailored to niche audiences for their > specific needs (enhancing interfaces for certain types of job hunters, for > example). The context of use and the needs of the individual user is the > critical challenge of the design space for Craigslist. > > So, in this example, I believe, the "ugly" veneer of the Craigslist design > contributes to its current level of delight. (For the same reason that > delighted Costco customers would not be happier if it took on Neiman > Marcus's aesthetic qualities.) > > This is all a long way of saying that I think at a certain point, beauty and > usability converge and thus aren't in contention, instead are synergistic. > It's all about meeting needs and desires. Only when working together, does > the beauty and usability of the design reach perfection. > > But what do I know? I'm just an academic who has never designed anything. My > opinion isn't worth the money you've paid for it. :) > > Jared > > > On Sep 19, 2009, at 9:00 AM, dave malouf wrote: > >> While I agree that a beautiful interface that doesn't work (in some >> ways) may become ugly, but I also agree with Norman's assertion that >> something emotionally appealing can basically make up for its lack of >> usability. Beauty and the positive emotional impact associated with >> that creates a pain threshold that I'm not sure I have observed the >> other way around. I have really seen a "usable" product really make >> me feel more engaged. >> >> For clarification and for the purposes of my post and I'd like to >> suggest for this thread I am speaking usability quite narrowly >> possibly. I'm considering usability the quality of a product related >> to the efficiency and rate of success towards completing a desired >> activity. Basically, whether a user can or with what level of >> consistency and efficiency they can complete an intended task in the >> product design. >> >> So again, I do think that I would if the 2 areas became in contention >> and I have many experiences where they have, learn towards the >> aesthetic over the purely usable b/c aesthetics can be used to engage >> in ways that pure usability does not seem to in my experience. > > -- Dave Malouf http://davemalouf.com/ http://twitter.com/daveixd http://scad.edu/industrialdesign http://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
