[Sigia-l] Comment - The New Nielson

[George Olsen]

I'd agree with Chrstina that Don's quest for beauty -- which it's
important to again point out predated the Macromedia partnership -- is
probably the greater influence.

Yeah, it's something a number of us have been saying for a long time, but
let's face it, Jakob has the ear of many a business executive in a way
most of us don't, so if he's embracing (and promoting) a broader notion of
user experience that's a Good Thing for all of us.

My only concern is that he continues to use "usability" to talk about
"user experience." In my view, the former is one of the components that
makes up the latter.

So I'd change his equation "usability = engagement" to "usability +
engagement = enjoyable experience." As Nielsen points out, it's hard to
get engaged with something that's unusable. But making it usable doesn't
automatically make it engaging. (For that matter, "empowerment" is a third
factor separate from usabable or engaging.)

Confusing the issue by combining what are really separate factors makes it
more difficult to test for -- and design -- good user experiences.

_____________________________________________________________________
George Olsen                           george at interactionbydesign.com
User Experience Architect                                310-993-0467