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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Emotion Design - The Next Thing to Dig For
From:       Sébastien_Laoût <slaout () linux62 ! org>
Date:       2006-09-30 12:22:27
Message-ID: 200609301422.27154.slaout () linux62 ! org
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Hello all,

For some time now I begin to hear and read about Emotion Design.
Another field that, I think, is very important to look at to get our 
applications right.
It could be as important as usability.


Here is an explanation of Emotion Design:
http://experiencedynamics.blogs.com/site_search_usability/2006/09/what_is_emotion.html

It also contains some links to interesting PDF research papers.


There is also that page:
http://experiencedynamics.blogs.com/site_search_usability/2004/04/would_you_like_.html

It shows a good example of what I always tought stupid: Winamp skins.
They are completely unusable, but beautiful.
And people still use Winamp! Yes, there are crazy people using unusable 
softwares.
Windows people also like to have extravagant skins for theire windows and 
widgets. They look nice as pieces of artwork, but not usable as interfaces.
That prove look is very important for nowaday softwares.
See Mac OS X, Windows Vista, Xgl... all are very good looking pieces of 
softwares. If we want people to use Linux, we don't only have to get the 
usability right, we have to get the look and feel appealing.
Both are important, and not one should be more proeminant than the other.

It's important to dig Emotion Design as we did for usability two or three 
years ago.
With Qt4, graphics programming is more easy, we will see more eye-candy.
That's good, but it should be done right, not just because it's technically 
possible. And for that, we need Emotion Design experts, like we already have 
Usability experts.


And another link:
http://usabilityblog.dk/

I subscribed the RSS some months ago because it talked about Usability.
And for some months it's now talking about Emotion Design more proeminently.
That's where I discovered that emerging concept.
This blogger also recently created a new images-based method in order to test 
the desirability of a product, if users are happy with applications, if they 
feel frustrated or if they are just indifferent (because it's usable... and 
nothing more).


BTW, I'm no Emotion Design expert :-)
I've only seen this concept emerge and tought it's right, it have some future 
(like when usability emerged in the past), and could be very important in a 
near future for KDE.

Best regards,
Sébastien Laoût.

PS: is this mailinglist dead?
It's not as healthy as it was eg. one year ago!
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