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Title:

Is Usability a Strategy for Mediocrity?

Your vote:
Yes No
Organizer:
Todd Wilkins , Adaptive Path
Description:
Usability is an important component of successful design. But it's just one out of many. Great products must also be desirable, delightful, engaging, meaningful, etc. Can "usability" be a successful strategy and rallying cry to meet these ends? Is 'usability' as a profession up to the task given its general focus on evaluation, efficiency, tasks, and errors?
Questions
Answered:
Level:
Advanced
Category:
Design, Philosophical
Type:
Panel
Event:
SXSW Interactive 2008
Russell Wilson
on 20/8/07
No. Usability is about testing design to ensure that it meets certain basic and fundamental requirements. Todd - I'll definitely attend to hear this if you are selected to present. I encounter confusion on this all of the time.
Thor Muller
on 24/8/07
I saw Todd do a version of this presentation at WebVisions and he was quite memorable, particularly the part where he comes out in drag.
Zane Safrit
on 27/8/07
Not being a member of the design community, maybe my outlook is pedestrian. But...isn't 'usability' the culmination of 'desirable, delightful, engaging, meaningful, etc'? To the extent the design incorporates those elements, it becomes usable. If the consumer/customer/enduser doesn't find a design 'desirable, delightful, engaging, meaningful, etc'...then the design won't get used.

Or maybe I should see Todd's presentation, drag or not.
Chris Bernard
on 4/9/07
I'd go see this.
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