Experience is usability + concept
Image by Flickr Commons
I’m fortunate to work with smart, nice people. We collaborate on solving complex problems, listen more than talk and we try to respect each other’s role. Sounds sickening doesn’t it? Don’t misunderstand it’s not always marshmallows and unicorns, we’ll battle like crazy for what we think is right. Capstrat encourages respectful, healthy debate that yields the best client ideas. Nowhere have I seen this volatile love fest bloom more than our interactive work.
There are so many reasons why. For purposes of this post, shout outs go to our great UXDs Evan Carroll and John Romano. With big love to former UXD Todd Moy too. Those guys along with the talented Cord Silverstein have helped elevate a slice of magic too often missing from user experiences on the web. The big idea. I know…GASP! Isn’t usability the kahuna of all experiences? Yes. Until you realize as long as there’s choice there’ll be a need to turn visitors into users and pedestrians into bona fide traffic. I believe the complete experience is a combination of both excellent usability and concept. Both are complex, require talent to uncover and dedication to collaboration. Our writers, designers and user experience designers prove this daily. I love working with them because of that.
“Capital letter D” design is both a verb and noun. In the world of creative for commerce both the verb of “usability” and the noun of “tangible concept” must happily coexist. Focus too much on the verb, work becomes academic and esoteric. But if the work relies too heavily on the aesthetic of elements–the noun–it’s forgettable and useless. It may be creative but not for commerce. Good design has intent and purpose. Good design works hard and demonstrates elegance in the process. I love seeing this come to life. It’s the realization of insights.
Comments
Preach on.
It's a chicken-egg idea, really. You can't have one without the other. And when it's done right, you can't tell which one came first.
Right on! I love seeing our teams work fluidly back an forth. Unfortunately, I think companies can over process themselves right out a good idea.
I should clarify, neither should come first. They should both be the result of collaboration.
And for process, we need to remember that the metric of success isn't the process we follow, but rather the results we achieve. To that end, I think of process as a pointer. It directs us to the result and provides milestones along the way. But how we get there should be steeped in collaboration and informed by the unique challenge at hand. There's no one way to do it. And whoever thinks there is should go buy some cookie cutters. I hear they're on sale elsewhere.
HA!
Clearly you haven't tried to find gingerbread man cookie cutters in July. Terry Beal! Can you feel me?!
Agree. The best work comes about when user experience designers get in on the creative concepting and concepts help form user experiences.
We see that we are all experience designers, bringing different perspectives and value to the table.
A convert! Thanks for sharing this insight. Couldn't agree more.
What up Reba?!
Great to hear from you. Yes. It all sounds easy when we write it down on a post. I challenge these guys to push me to make better concepts AND better usability.
In the end it's all about the brand voice, right?
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