<- Usability Must Die Ugly User Interfaces - does it matter ?

These are some screen shots of AskAmy, an Intranet application that I designed and built about four years ago. It has been in constant use since then and is currently being used by over two thousand people every day. The design has not changed in that time. I would be the first to admit that my colour sense is awful. On some days my wife makes me change my clothes, as she doesn't want people to see what awful colour combinations I choose. The left hand search pane comes up when the user clicks on the Search Icon in the IE toolbar. This first image also shows a Personal Loan calculator that was the very first Intranet application that I built.

Here is what the search results page looks like.

And here is the navigation screen.

I have been abused and mocked by graphic designers for my colour choices. But in all of the user surveys that have been done, not a single user has ever criticised the colours. In fact in one of the most recent surveys one user said that they liked AskAmy because the interface was consistent and didn't change every month (unlike the Corporate Style pages). So the question is this: If the design works, does it matter if it looks like road kill?

email: Chris McEvoy