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.
Hi Rob,
I just want to clarify that I did not and do not “assert” that usability stifles creativity. As a usability consultant, I would be mad to think so. The title of the post is merely reflecting the thoughts of some designers and developers I have spoken with.
Cheers,
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Nice to hear from you. I must say, I tried really hard to work out your stance on the usability vs creativity issue from your post. Your comment “So I guess I have to sit on the fence for this one” led me to believe that you didn’t have a stance one way or the other. I admit that ‘assert’ was not correct word. Perhaps ‘questions’ is better?
Cheers
Rob