[besson3c]

What does the term "usability" mean to you? How about "user experience"? Are there differences?

[CharlesS]

Usability: the degree to which I don't have to use Linux

User Experience: the degree to which I don't have to listen to besson3c ranting about Linux

[besson3c]

Heh... I assure you, I did not have Linux in mind when I started this thread.

[CharlesS]

Riiiiiiiiight...

[besson3c]

Really... I would like to talk about this.

So much conversation in here seems to be dominated by shadows, reflections, the new menu bar, etc. That is all cool, but this is all user experience type stuff, and there is a lot of other stuff that we can discuss within the realm of user experience.

I guess I'm just wondering if anybody is interested in talking about usability, or even any other aspect of user experience, or whether there is a difference in how we define and think about these things.

[analogika]

Looks like we got you *really* confused over in the OS X forum, eh?

[Chuckit]

Usability is a big part of user experience, but it's not the whole thing. For instance, butt-ugly icons are not necessarily less usable than pretty 512x512 works of art, but people don't like using them as much. The disc-burning app Disco managed to create an incredibly good user experience despite the fact that it had less usability than its competition by making the interface interesting and fun to use, and it's managed to turn a tidy profit off that.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Usability is a big part of user experience, but it's not the whole thing. For instance, butt-ugly icons are not necessarily less usable than pretty 512x512 works of art, but people don't like using them as much. The disc-burning app Disco managed to create an incredibly good user experience despite the fact that it had less usability than its competition by making the interface interesting and fun to use, and it's managed to turn a tidy profit off that.

I don't think that usability is a subset of user experience. It is possible to communicate meaning effectively without providing a fulfilling experience. For instance, I can get around on most cell phones, but most do not provide compelling user experiences to me.

The reason I can get around on most cell phones most likely is that they leverage some familiarity I already have with using various electronic devices. However, the usability is not seamless - I still have to stop and think about things, and some functions require far more pressing buttons, massaging, and navigation than I would like on my phone.

Usability is a measure of how well things are communicated to the user, how quickly they can figure out how to use an interface, and how productive they are. As per this definition, drop shadows and reflections and whatnot have very little to do with this.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I don't think that usability is a subset of user experience. It is possible to communicate meaning effectively without providing a fulfilling experience. For instance, I can get around on most cell phones, but most do not provide compelling user experiences to me.

Would the user experience be affected at all if you could not "get around"?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Would the user experience be affected at all if you could not "get around"?

Yes, but overriding these sorts of considerations would be the lack of usability. That is, there is no opportunity for any sort of positive user experience if the product is unusable to you.