UX-Toolbox: Aesthetic-Usability-Effect

One of the best ways to improve your product or help it stand out against competition, is to ensure the user experience is top-notch.

By applying different UX-Effects, you can ensure that your users are getting the most out of your product.

In this article, we will examine the Aesthetic-Usability Effect and see how it can improve your user experience.

Take-Away

Here are some actionable points you can take with you:

Crafting a beautiful user interface is worth it, as it can improve the perception of your product and brand

Make sure that your product performs the function it is meant to perform - create a balance between the beauty and function of your design

Spotting the aesthetic usability effect during user research will prevent usability issues from creeping into your product

What is this Aesthetic-Usability-Effect all about?

The Aesthetic-Usability Effect describes the case where people perceive design that they feel is visually pleasing to them, as design that works better.

Research shows that the more beautiful participants rated the user interface, the more usable they perceived the user interface to be.

This means that when a person finds the design of an app pleasing, they will be more likely to believe that the product works better.

This is because the pleasing design causes a positive reaction in the person's brain.

Impact

One of the positives to take away from this effect is that it can lead people to be more forgiving of minor usability issues, when they find your product's visual design good.

I highlighted the word minor because a good visual design won't save you, if the user can't actually perform the function your product sets out to perform.

All you have to do is make sure your product works as intended and make it look good - that's it?

Not quite.

A more negative aspect of this effect is that it can get in the way of your usability testing.

Remember that good design makes people more forgiving?

Well, that can mask usability issues during testing, leaving them to be undiscovered.

It is very important that whoever is conducting the user research knows what this effect is and how to spot it.

If you see the user struggling to find information on the screen or perform a particular action, this is a good sign that the usability is a bit off.

When the user then starts to comment on the beautiful user interface and the colour scheme, you know that they have fallen prey to the aesthetic-usability effect.

The carefully crafted and beautifully designed user interface should enhance the already great function of your product. Finding a good balance between form and function is important when building great products.

Let me know in the comments what topics in UX-Design you would like to learn about.