This week’s readings have been interesting to read. Many times the concepts of usability and beauty come into play when people make their purchases, be it the new iPhone, a new mechanical keyboard with many RGB options, or just a shirt that has a rather unconventional design. Although, this is where we enter into this curious realm (at least for me) of the real effectiveness of these products.
Let’s give a scenario: would you rather have a phone that is internally more powerful but with an old design, or have a more modern one whose design is more updated, although performance-wise it is slower? Both are going to have their software outdated at the same time; therefore, what would one person pick? If the person is inexperienced with technology, this performance difference is not notorious, but those who do gaming on phones might apply a different lens to it. Not only does beauty transmit different feelings, but it also offers different ways to use and interpret it. For example, if I am going through a software error, I prefer that the system outputs the information about the error with detailed logs (in minimalistic fashion) as they are rather than just show a blue screen with a rather, obscure error. The first is generally related to settings where people are expected to be more technologically literate, but the latter is displayed more simplistically and is easy to associate with a system crash for most people; the only downside is that the technician might spend a bit more time understanding what is exactly happening. As Norman suggests, the system has to be prepared for unlikely scenarios, as seen in Hamilton’s case right around Christmas in 1968, where some astronauts accidentally used a function accidentally, but there were functions to mitigate it.
Obviously, even for myself, I would prefer something that is appealing to both my eyes and easy to understand. This is due to personal experiences and the fact that I see a certain beauty in seeing lots of logs of reports without feeling afraid. It is very difficult for me to choose eye candy over functionality, since my lens is a more technical one.