Design Philosophy Poster-rama

Our design and user experience teams collaborated on a poster series for the 2009 Usability Professionals Association conference in Portland, OR. The goal? Find a way to encapsulate our company's user experience design philosophy into a series of posters that tied into the conference theme of 'bringing usability to life.'

Our team conceptualized three different scenarios in which we felt a conversation about the balance between usability and experience could easily happen. Each poster asks a different question and illustrates a design principle used to make the environment more usable.

Click on the posters below to view:

UNDER THE SEA

What's more immersive?

GRAFFITI

What's the message?

VENICE

Is challenge the charm?

We'd like to suggest that sometimes, strict adherence to the usable isn't necessarily the optimal driver for the overall experience. Sometimes the very fact that an activity or place is hard to reach makes the user's experience more enriching.

What do you think? What kinds of conversations do you have with your clients and agency personnel regarding what's usable? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Barbara Holmes is a Senior Information Architect at ISITE Design in Portland, OR.