[IxDA Discuss] interesting article : Why Usability is a path to Failure

[Chris Bernard]

Perhaps the key line here is "Usability is not a strategy for design success." That statement is really what Todd's posting seems to be about and if we agree that it is I think it's spot on. Usability is becoming a table stake in many disciplines and it's about time that it start being one in interaction design. Some of my more developer and programmer focused brethren use a term called 'hygiene' -- all those standards and practices and patterns that are necessary and expected but not rewarded.

Usability is necessary and important (and Todd doesn't say it's not), but will it make people buy something or cherish something all by itself? Probably not.

Increasingly, it's simply one of the many ingredients that you need to master to even show up to play. I'd submit that performance (both real and perceived) and quality are the other two factors in interaction design that are table stakes too. It's the mix of those three things along with the inspired thinking that motivated you to package things in a certain way that inspires something laudable in a product, service or application.

Chris Bernard
Microsoft
User Experience Evangelist
chris.bernard at microsoft.com
630.530.4208 Office
312.925.4095 Mobile



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-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Jarod Tang
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2007 12:47 PM
To: discuss at interactiondesigners.com
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] interesting article : Why Usability is a path to Failure

From: http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4069.asp

> So, why oh why do people in this day age still hold up "usability" as
> something laudable in product and service design? Praising usability is like
> giving me a gold star for remembering that I have to put each leg in a
> *different* place in my pants to put them on. (Admittedly, I *do* give my 2
> year old daughter a gold star for this but then she's 2.) Usability is not a
> strategy for design success. The efficiency you create in your interface
> will be copied almost instantaneously by your competitors. Recently, I'm
> even coming to believe that focusing on usability is actually a path to
> failure. Usability is too low level, too focused on minutia. It can't compel
> people to be interested in interacting with your product or service. It
> can't make you compelling or really differentiate you from other
> organizations. Or put another way, there's only so far you can get by
> streamlining the shopping cart on your website.
>

though i not agree with the opinion, it makes me think about the interaction
design much more than pro interaction article.

Cheers
-- Jarod

--
IxD for better life style.

http://jarodtang.blogspot.com
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