Aesthetic-Usability Effect is a “phenomenon in which people perceive more-aesthetic designs as easier to use than less-aesthetic designs—whether they are or not.”
When people like a design, they think it’ll be easier to use.
These positive feelings about a design have a second-order consequence too: people are more tolerant of design problems.
I remember opening up my first iPod. Its user interface was like nothing I’d ever used before. I couldn’t believe I could control the device using only the clickwheel. This sat in stark contrast to the MP3 players of the day with the myriad of buttons and switches.
As a Product Manager—a job where I support a team of engineers, designers, and researchers to develop and ship software—it’s easy to offload the design quality bar to, well, designers.
But sitting with the product, using it, trying to break it, asking questions about why a feature or interaction was included all help in testing the logic, thoughtfulness, and resilience of the design.
This is especially important when we’re building for an audience that’s either impatient or has short attention spans—such as users of consumer apps.
The collective standard for well designed products is only increasing. Keeping the Aesthetic-Usability Effect in mind may even influence us to to go against Reid Hoffman’s advice, “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”