after6ix

Usable Design

Usable Design. Sad to say, amidst one of my dinner conversations, this phrase got referred to as a oxymoron. 

Then it struck me, is it really difficult to design something that is usable? Of course, in this context, the subject matter would be websites… usable websites.

Is it inconceivable for a website to be aesthetically beautiful and yet usable at the same time? Or rather, is usabilty synonymous to unattractive design? Are websites not meant to be used and just solely meant to be gawked at? I find myself asking, how valued is usabilty in design?

If you ask me, good design is good usabilty. Undeniably, we are all drawn towards aesthetically pleasing websites but for a user to be actually engaged and taking away something meaningful from them, the site has got to be usable. And yes with that, I mean having text readable to the naked eye, offering a audio button to shut that mindless droning music, not shoving me to full-screen pages… for goodness sake, make me want to use the site!

Repent from Flash Sins was written quite a while back in the year 2000, but despite that, it covers the gist of employing common sense when designing a Flash site. In the same note, Flazoom is a website dedicated to usability in Flash, it offers various interesting topics such as “Are you designing for your eyes only?“, “Making Sure Usability ‘Fitts’ Flash” and a white paper on Macromedia Flash usabilty.

Have your users in mind when you work on that nifty, out-of-the-world navigation or even that extremely important 25-second mind-blowing intro. Consider if that really adds value to what you want the user to take away. After all, what is the point in it all? Why spend hours crafting out a masterpiece and yet put up all kinds of barriers to it? Make it pretty, make it fun and make it usable. Pay good attention to usabilty, go the extra mile.

Usable design need not be an oxymoron.