I’m in the midst of transitioning jobs but will soon post a multi-part series on the place and value of aesthetics for interaction designers. I’ve long had thoughts about this, dating back to my graduate thesis on beauty as an emergent value of user experience, and subsequent papers for CHI and IDSA exploring the various experiential interpretations of beauty, even proposing a model of aesthetics for new product innovation at the IDSA World Design Congress last fall. When I recently saw aesthetics re-surface as a point of debate on the ixda list, I decided to publish more about my ideas on this, leveraging material from my previous papers and talks. However, that was over a month ago! :-) So I intend to make good on that personal promise very soon…
Aesthetics for Interaction Design
Part 1: General thoughts on design aesthetics
Part 2: Interpretations of beauty as a value of user experience