Fact is, people don't care about design. They care about usability.
Another fact, "ugly" sites sell better too: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/mar/27prt.html
Another fact, "ugly" sites sell better too: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/mar/27prt.html
As if designers only make things pretty. I'm amazed at how people get easily confused by this.
Interaction design is essentially the first step in making a useful system. It's more important than the tech-cool aspects of a project, and is contained in that nice phrase "make something people want"
Today's tools to make a webpage are worse than the options available to designers for print media. That's too bad.
If your design team is not trying to make a usable and delightful user experience, then get a new set of designers.
Interaction design is NOT about making things pretty. It's about giving the user a delightful experience. This includes making it match the user's mental model of how the system should work, AND designing it so that users enjoy spending their time (yes, using your product will take some non-zero amount of time) using it.
I don't think so, I think most users will put up with a painfully unusable site if its the first one they come across that fulfills their need. Only software designers care about usability.