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Form and Function: Creativity and Usability Unite

Posted by shegeek at April 8th, 2009 | No Comments »

What is the foot without the little toe?

Or the head without a heart?

 
Could you walk without your little toes?  Can you imagine thoughts without emotions?  That’s exactly what you experience when you visit websites created without design and usability as complementary components – emotionless thoughts, thoughtless emotions, footless toes and toeless feet!   

In “Form or Function: When Creativity and Usability Collide“, I discussed the often oppositionary principles of creativity and usability.  This is a subject near and dear to my heart because nothing irks me more than beautiful design that is not functional and functional design that is flat out ugly.  While it can be challenging to blend form and function, it is not only possible, it is necessary.

Did you hear what that crazy guy Sullivan said?

 
In 1896, architect Louis Henri Sullivan said, “Form ever follows function.”  Unfortunately, the simple elegance and beauty of this statement is lost and bastardized into meanings that Sullivan never intended.  Regardless of what you may have heard or been taught, this chunky little nugget of wisdom was never uttered to imply that function was more important than form.   It is also important to acknowledge that contrary to pop-culture “wisdom”, dying for one’s art is highly overrated, particularly when the art becomes the means to the end. 

Sullivan’s statement started the debate about form and function.  However, Frank Lloyd Wright made it perfectly clear by stating, “Form and function are one.” 

All ego aside, the naked truth is simply this:  Form and function are inseparably intertwinable. Good sites render an understanding of this ideal.  Great sites exemplify it.
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Categories: Design & Development
Tags: Creativity, Design & Development, Usability

Form or Function: When Creativity and Usability Collide

Posted by shegeek at March 9th, 2009 | No Comments »

The significant problems we have cannot be solved with the thinking used to create them.   Albert Einstein

The basic need of the creator is independence.  The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive.   Gary Cooper as Howard Roark in The Fountainhead 

It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.   Louis Sullivan

Brand Me

Web Designers – those gloriously creative, kind of quirky but brilliant minds that visualize the possibilities in vivid colors and memorable effects.   These free spirits make your “brand” visible to the world and for many years had almost free reign to design and create and bring websites to life.

Use Me

Usability is a big word these days, so big in fact, that we now have usability experts and “Certified Usability Analysts”.  Entire departments and organizations are dedicated to usability or the so-called “Human Factor” in design.  Usability specialists want to make sure that when you visit a web site, you know what is on the site, how to get to it, and that you can get there without really having to think about how to get there.

Clash of the Titans

It is the designer’s job to give birth to visual beauty of the site.  The designer takes the visions of the company or the business owner and breathes life into them in a way that is visually appealing and unique.

It is a usability specialist’s job to be analytical; to evaluate the interaction between the product and the human. For a usability specialist the focus is on function, not form.

In the minds of many designers, creativity is the most important part of a website.  Creativity is required to connect experiences, emotions and understanding.  Designers connect all the bits and pieces and create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

In the mind of many usability specialists is the belief that usability is the most important part of a website.  A site must be easy to navigate, easy to read, easy to use.  If it isn’t usable, it is worthless.

When creativity and usability collide, there is often a power struggle between the designers and the usability experts.  I believe this is due, at least in part, to a misunderstanding of the oft-quoted mantra: “form follows function”.  In truth, neither form nor function is the key to a well-designed website.  It is the balance of the two that truly makes a website a success.

Part II

Form and Function: When creativity and usability unite

Categories: Design & Development
Tags: Creativity, Design & Development, Usability