[IxDA Discuss] Usability is more than...

[Jeff Howard]

In the past few months I've heard rumblings on the list that  
usability is about more than evaluation (first from Jared and more  
recently from Elizabeth). I'm not a card-carrying member of UPA, but  
this is interesting to me and I'd like to learn more about the point  
of view.

I was taught that Design represents the intersection of three  
attributes:
- the useful
- the usable
- the desirable

My entire context for usability has been as an evaluation tool to  
identify design elements that are initially confusing or that involve  
a high error rate for some ergonomic reason. In that context, short  
term learnability almost always trumps everything else. That can be  
frustrating. I've viewed it as a failing of usability testing;  
something that seems to be baked in.

Now it appears that's not the case. In a recent thread, Elizabeth  
mentioned satisfaction and effectiveness as components of usability.  
That seems to frame usability as an analog for design itself. I'm all  
for disciplinary scope creep, but I want to make sure I understand  
the position correctly.

Without starting a holy war, I'd be interested in opposing  
perspectives on what constitutes usability.

// jeff