User experience honeycomb
A model that splits the quality of an experience into seven facets (useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, credible and valuable) to look beyond usability.
What problem it addresses
Avoids reducing the experience to ease of use and gives the team a shared language to decide what to improve first.
Components
Useful
It meets a real need of the person using it.
Usable
It is easy to use; this is necessary, but not enough.
Desirable
It appeals through its image, its identity and the emotion it evokes.
Findable
People can easily reach the product and, within it, what they are looking for.
Accessible
People with disabilities can use it too.
Credible
It inspires trust in what it says and in who offers it.
Valuable
It delivers value to whoever offers it, whether by fulfilling its mission or sustaining the business.
How it works
Diagnosis how the product is doing on each of the seven facets.
Priorities which facets matter most in this project and which can give way.
Improvements concrete changes to what matters most, without redoing everything.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Go through the seven facets at the start of a project or a review to see what is missing and agree on priorities.
Avoid
Treating all seven facets as equally important in every case; the weight of each depends on the product.
Don’t fall for it
It is a model born from practice, without empirical validation: use it to think and talk, not to measure.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2004
Peter Morville
Proposed the seven facets in an article to explain that the experience goes beyond usability and to help set priorities.
Sources
Original sources
- Morville, P. (2004, June 21). User experience design. Semantic Studios. View source: Morville, P. (2004, June 21)
Last reviewed: