“It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.” – Don Norman
This quote is from Don’s article “Introduction to This Special Section on Beauty, Goodness, and Usability” from the publication “Human-Computer Interaction”
(EDIT: URL to the article has been updated. Click on the “View Article” link on that page to view the PDF)
“While great usability is a baseline requirement, there is far more involved in engaging customers on a Web site than simply making sure they can find specific content and perform particular transactions. Today’s mandate is to move beyond traditional usability. Instead of designing only for what visitors can do on a site, superior Web design is now responsible for determining what customers will do.” – Eric Schaffer
Read Eric’s article “Beyond Usability: Designing Web Sites for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust” for his thoughts on important aspects of design beyond usability.
“I believe that logic + emotion are a winning combination. When useful and useable meet delight—great things happen. It’s about balance.” – David Armano
Read David’s short but powerful blog entry “A Simple Philosophy” here.
“If you want to reach the greatest number of users possible, it’s best to write clearly and simply and design your interfaces to be consistent from page to page. For some people, simple usability advice like this is an absolute accessibility need… And anyway, people of all abilities fail tasks that are confusing. Why should we all suffer an interface that proves itself to be unusable?” – Matt May
Read Matt’s article “Accessibility From the Ground Up” from Digital Web Magazine for his thoughts on creating accessible designs.
“It’s standard practice to design with our user’s goals in mind. Too often, though, we tend to focus only on the immediate goals… Although we may produce usable and successful designs, we have ignored the user’s larger context. They may be bored, tired, at work, grinding away at a long term deliverable. They may be entering countless rows of data into a spreadsheet. People love to have fun. Without sacrificing usability, let’s bring a little fun into our designs.” – Loren Baxter
Read Loren’s article “Fun in Interaction Design” here.
“You can have information and ease of use and have artistic integrity at the same time. The art of being a good Web designer is getting yourself into that middle ground and treating it as a final destination instead of as a compromise.” – Mike Davidson
Read the interview with designer Mike Davison entitled “Producing a Reaction Through Design” for more on his approach to design.
Catriona Cornett