Lisa Herrod, over at SitePoint, asserts that Usability Stifles Creativity. She uses the site Etsy as an example.
I’m struggling to see an inverse relationship between testing and creativity.
Creative designers shouldn’t be stifled by usability testing, it should confirm and inform their design rationale.
Of course, clever people can do a very good job of designing an interface without user testing. BUT, there are many things that Etsy could improve – their “cute” naming of their features doesn’t always give a clear scent or indication as to the outcome of a click (what is Alchemy, that is the difference between time machine 1 & 2), there is no “title” / “alt” behaviour on the navigation, would it be more desirable to show more of the sellers other items in the right hand column, given there is a fair amount of white-space at the bottom of that column.
Usability testing can ALWAYS be used to validate and inform decisions. I see no reason why this should stifle creativity. If anything, usability testing should allow the designer to test waters that they may otherwise be wary of.
Usability testing allows us to step out of our ivory towers and see how our application is used by REAL people in the REAL world. In this sense, and with these goals in mind, the only time a designers creativity is stifled is when she has designed something that is not optimally usable.
