Here's a great article that I found on the website of SURL (The Software Usability and Research Laboratory) at Wichita State University. It mentions that infamous ATM experiment and describes in detail another study in which college students ranked the aesthetic appeal of four websites and perceived usability of those sites. As you can see in the article, there is a definite correlation between aesthetic appeal and ease of use for each of those sites. I never really thought about these things until I started taking this class. The desire to bring order out of chaos and our attraction to pretty things must be so deeply ingrained that we don't really notice them- it's just second nature. This article also (in my opinion) did a better job explaining why "attractive things work better": to quote the article, "when a website is harmonious, it engages the viewer and creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it becomes either boring or chaotic".
Anyway, here's the article. Hope you find it helpful in some way.
Aesthetics and Usability: A Look at Color and Balance
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment