Does aesthetics make things seem more usable

Ondřej Konečný MUNI Arts / Information Services Design Does Aesthetics Make Things Seem More Usable? January 2026

Why I choose this topic? As a software designer and engineer, I make daily decisions about how interfaces look and function.

Does investing time in visual polish actually improve how usable people perceive my designs to be?

Why this can be interesting for you? You interact with dozens of apps and websites daily.

Table of Content 01 Aesthetic vs. Usable: What Do They Mean? 02 The Aesthetic-Usability Effect 03 Beauty gone wrong: Pitfalls!

Aesthetic vs. Usability: What Do They Mean?

Aesthetic Visual appeal that creates positive emotional response.

Example Source: Apple.com website Source: Bad Websites Examples: 20 Worst Website Designs

Example Source: The influence of design aesthetics in usability testing: Effects on user per formance and perceived usability (Andreas Sonderegger , Juergen Sauer).

Usability Effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in achieving goals.

Example Juicy Salif designed by Phillipe Starck.

Example “Tilting” teapot by Ronnefeldt. A, B, C steps. Donald Norman’s collection.

The Aesthetic-Usability Effect Users are more tolerant of minor usability issues when they find an interface visually appealing.

experiment from 90’ 26 variations of an ATM interfaces 252 study participants In 1995, Japanese researchers, Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura, from Hitachi Design Center did a famous ATM test.

Kurosu and Kashimura concluded that users are strongly influenced by the aesthetics of any given interface.

Noam Tractinsky repeated the experiment Not sold on the Japanese experiment The results were even stronger in Israeli Source: Be Aware of Aesthetic-Usability Effect in User Research (Medium)

Suggested article and video https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ aesthetic-usability-effect/ https://www.nngroup.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=NG7MINxqVE0

What does it mean for interface designers?

If designers care mostly about usability, they still need to make their designs look good.

Beauty gone wrong: Pitfalls!

“Have you ever used a beautiful website that turned out to be frustrating or confusing?”

So does aesthetics make things seem more usable? 01 02 Positive response to aesthetics Attractive interfaces More tolerant of usability issues. Reduced task completion

The best design is one that uses aesthetics to support and enhance the content and functionality of the product.

Sources 01 N. Tractinsky*, A.S. Katz, D. Ikar (24. 3. 2000) What is beautiful is usable 02 Andreas Sonderegger , Juergen Sauer (2010) The influence of design aesthetics in usability testing: Effects on user performance and perceived usability 03 Guillermo Valverde (April 2012) Empirical Studies in Aesthetic Computing: Aesthetics, Usability & Performance 04 Eline Jongmans, Florence Jeannot, Lan Liang & Maud Dampérat (2022) Impact of website visual design on user experience and website evaluation: the sequential mediating roles of usability and pleasure

Thank you!