A CRAP way to improve usability

The aesthetic usability argument helps muddle understanding around the true purpose of visual design as it implicitly accepts the premise that visual design is about "decorating the walls of your living room" but then tries to claim that this role is more important than you think.

In truth, while the aesthetic usability effect is real, it's one of the less important reasons why good visual design is important. Over the last few years, we've kind of won the debate over the importance and impact of user experience design but, because this debate is so muddled, even many visual designers are unclear about the proper role of visual design and work in ways that limit both their success and their company's success.

Visual design is, first and foremost, about effective communication. The best demonstration I've ever seen of this principle is this time lapse video: http://vimeo.com/17158963 where you get to see just what is involved in creating a great work of visual design and how it's scope of responsibility is far more than "making things look pretty".

I learned this concept years ago in "The Non Designer's Design Book". It really gave a logical breakdown of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity along with a number of other useful/important design techniques.

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-...

Struggling to reconcile the following two points, one from the intro and one from the section on Alignment:

  - "Research shows that people believe that more attractive designs are easier to use than less attractive designs even when they’re not."
  - "Without thinking about it too hard, which form looks easier to complete, the one on the left or the one on the right? ... Most people say the form on the right looks easier to complete."

Have I missed something here?

I can believe that having a form that looks complicated may put people off, but the article doesn't make that point. More importantly, I have no evidence to back up that belief - and given the statement from the intro, I'm surprised the author doesn't attempt to justify it either.

That first example is pretty terrible though, the cancel button looks like it's inactive in one version and like the app is broken in the second...

This is complete plagiarism from Robin William's "Non-Designer's Design Book." She identifies the four principles of design as Alignment, Contrast, Repetition, and Proximity. She even makes a reference to the fact that "CRAP" would be a poor acronym.

The author simply reorganized the principles, and that's dishonest. http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia...