I'm not advocating doing things poorly, just saying that these things
(usability, aesthetics, beauty, delightfulness) aren't on/off
propositions. And, while they are intertwined, there is some slack. It
is possible (and may sometimes be appropriate) to fiddle with design
elements that make a product more aesthetically pleasing but less
usable (without making it unusable) and vice versa.
I have a Nooka watch that's a little bit hard to read but it is
delightful. If it were more usable, it would lose its appeal. The
default desktop images on Mac and Windows make it harder to read/find
things on the desktop, but they (arguably) make interacting with the
computer more delightful than a solid color would. The switches in the
center console of the Mini Cooper aren't the most usable design for
their functions, but they contribute to the overall delight of that
driving experience. How you measure success for these products is
different than how you would probably measure success for a time punch
clock, a medical device or a forklift (which is not to say that that
aesthetics do not play a role in their usability).
I'm also not trying to argue that there is always a tradeoff between
aesthetics and usability, but that it's not so black and white as more
usable = more delightful = more successful, in part because there is
no single measure of success.
-Adam
On Sep 24, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Jared Spool wrote:
On Sep 24, 2009, at 4:27 PM, Adam Korman wrote:
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.
Yah, not sure I buy that either.
I think doing something poorly (whether usability or aesthetic
design) will result in undesirable outcomes.
For a designer (vs. an artist), I think it's clear that they are
both tied together intimately.
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