The False Dichotomy of Usability and Aesthetics in the Field of HCI Design

Abstract

The profession of Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Design has a history of considering usability and aesthetics as separate aspects of a design. The dichotomy has perpetuated a common split in the profession between the subspecialities of Interaction Design and Visual Design, or a split between who designs the logic and who designs the look. This split creates more opportunity for diminished synergy between the logic and the visual design. The concept of “wrapping wireframes in a visual design” reflects a narrow view of aesthetics as focused on branding, style, and visual appeal [1]. Aesthetics plays a role in everything we experience, including usability, and this broad view is more in line with designing a whole user experience [2–4]. What is ignored by not considering usability and aesthetics as fundamentally integrated might be the deep harmony of logical order, the simple elegance of minimal options, or the perfect marriage of shape and behavior. Three reasons for the dichotomy of usability and aesthetics in the HCI profession might be: 1.) Using computers is much more complicated than using non-computer products. 2.) The HCI field has been historically filled with people from mostly science-based backgrounds that don’t value aesthetics. 3.) HCI designers lack the power to assert aesthetic priorities in the way that designers can in Architecture or Industrial Design due to business and engineering priorities. Now that computation is escaping the limitations of the GUI, gaining varied physical embodiments, mobility, intelligence, even personalities, it is time embrace a broad view of aesthetics.