I think where the tension lies is that while aesthetics play a role in
usability, there isn't a two-way correlation between aesthetics &
usability. In other words, making something more usable requires
attention to aesthetics, but the reverse isn't true and focusing on
aesthetics alone won't necessarily make something more usable (it may
make it less so). Depending on how you're measuring success, that may
or may not be okay.
One thing that's tricky about this is that while designing and
developing new products (especially software) it can be hard to
distinguish at a glance between things that are usable+beautiful vs.
things that are just beautiful, and it can be easy to get seduced by
the latter and be stuck with something that's not usable.
-Adam
On Sep 24, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Dave Malouf wrote:
I think we can say that the Aesthetic over Usability has some logic
holes in
it.
I think I felt that emotion over logic wasn't enough, or did not
articulate
well enough in practice and felt that the a over u articulation
hopefully
would do that.
So I'll concede for now that the dichotomy fails and we can move on.
I won't concede though that there are areas of aesthetics and
emotion that
are not included under even the broadest definition or focus of
usability.
-- dave
On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 9:19 AM, Jared Spool <[email protected]> wrote:
On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 4:52 AM, Gilberto Medrano
<[email protected]>wrote:
And even the motivational power of connotation serves a function in
design. I just can't separate aesthetics from "usability" that
easily.
And that was my point. Going back to David's original principal of
Beauty
over Usability, I too am having trouble seeing the tension between
the two.
Jared
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