Usable is not enough
A few weeks back I saw a quote in my Twitter feed that read "making Web sites usable, is like making food edible." Isn't that the truth? I can cook food that's edible (most of the time), but I go to restaurants for a much better experience. I later learned that this quote was from Aarron Walter in his talk Emotional Interface Design at An Event Apart in Seattle.
Aaaron reminded me about one of the core principles of our discipline and of the way that Peter Morville, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, explains user experience. Peter uses a honeycomb to visually explain user experience. It's important for us to remember that effective products address all of these facets to create value for our users.
Here's his now-famous honeycomb model:
You can read more about each honeycomb in his 2004 post, User Experience Design. In other, slightly unexpected news here's a site I found during my searching called Edible/Usable that covers cooking, food and usability. Enjoy.
Comments
So true.
As easy as it sounds to make sites useable, it certainly takes a lot of work.
If you don't have a base level of good design everything else falls apart.
I love the honeycomb.
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