5 ms·

Usability heuristics for user interface design

78 points by boraoztunc 3y ago

turtleyacht 3y ago
Apps ought to be designed with these UI guidelines in mind: Here's what I'm working on right now, and how long it may take. Status feedback fosters trust. I speak your language. Jargon is confusing. You can take things back. Undo grants freedom from frustration. I behave just like the others. Inconsistent conventions increase cognitive load. Are you sure? Confirm before commit. Eliminate slips & mistakes. A slip is an unconscious, inattentive error. A mistake is a conscious error, but domain (mental model) mismatch. I auto-populated these fields. Design so interface favors recognition over recall. Ways to make you more efficient. Enable power-users. Aesthetic & minimalist, but not necessarily flat design. I've written stuff so you can learn more about me. Provide help and documentation. --- As I worked on this, I realized some of this could improve communication between people.
- prox 3y ago
  Pliancy : this is something you can manipulate
  - turtleyacht 3y ago
    Thank-you. Porcelain vs plumbing
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  > You can take things back. Undo grants freedom from frustration. > Are you sure? Confirm before commit. Eliminate slips & mistakes. A slip is an unconscious, inattentive error. A mistake is a conscious error, but domain (mental model) mismatch. Additionally, don't use the former as a replacement for the latter. While a way to undo destructive things should be present wherever possible, they should also be prevented from happening in the first place where reasonably possible. Google apps are bad about this. Rather than add a small amount of friction to avert common types of disasters, they tend to lean on undo, which works fine until you end up too distracted to notice the little "X happened [Undo]" notification until you realize what happened a week later when the action you accidentally committed has become irrevocable.
  - graypegg 3y ago
    An example of a product that has a well made undo feature is Jetbrains’ IDEA. Whole file operations (move, delete, rename) and refactoring tasks are included in the undo stack. They even let you browse the undo stack in the “local history” tool, which has totally ruined a lot of other editors for me.
- prime17569 3y ago
  Apple's old OS X Human Interface Guidelines (pre-OS X Yosemite)[1] said almost exactly the same things. https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021344if_/https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/OSXHIGuidelines.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021344if_/https://develo...
- graypegg 3y ago
  I kept your receipts: don’t create leaves in your navigation tree that can be only accessed once. An example is “order complete” screens that aren’t under the “active orders” or “receipts” page, but are their own special page that the user isn’t sure if they can get back to.
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
I've followed these basic principles for decades (Full disclosure: I've taken NNG courses -quite a few). They're really just basic common sense, but you know how it goes... > Common Sense: So rare, that it's a super power. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2b/ac/61/2bac61a609a63386b8342c757a4a6d34--common-sense-superpower.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2b/ac/61/2bac61a609a63386b8342c757...
pentagrama 3y ago
Original source https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
uxcolumbo 3y ago
Congrats on launching. Nice and short domain name, but it reminds me of Orwell’s book 1984 - not sure that’s a good thing or not. But depends who you’re trying to target. If it’s folks born in the early 2000s they might not know about it. Also, if you’re trying to create an online learning site with paid content in the future, it might be difficult to compete with sites like ixdf.org. Little nit pick ;) To follow one of the heuristics, I would make the logo go to the home page rather than bringing up the flyout for changing to dark mode. Nice one for trying out new things!
- boraoztunc 3y ago
  Thank you for your comment. You are right about Orwell, he and his books has influence on me. He's a great author, so let's agree on good :) Also, I was born in 1984, fav commercial Ridley Scott shot for Apple's Macintosh personal computer launch, and a couple of things. 1984.design is a passion project for me, after 15 years of a design career, I like to share knowledge more than serving clients and their projects. That's why I'm putting my efforts into learning and growing together with fellow designers while I'm getting older. I just want to do what I love, without getting caught up in thinking about competition. There is a small knit of people we can build great communities with. And that would be enough for me. I love IxDF btw, they provide excellent education for affordable prices and 1984 is a certified educational partner. And let's take a note here why using third-party software sucks, you can't even change the logo to go to home page. Which should be because it is a common habit, I don't even put "home" to top navigations and menus as people are clicking logos to navigate to the main page. See you around.

78 points by boraoztunc 3y ago

Apps ought to be designed with these UI guidelines in mind: Here's what I'm working on right now, and how long it may take. Status feedback fosters trust. I speak your language. Jargon is confusing. You can take things back. Undo grants freedom from frustration. I behave just like the others. Inconsistent conventions increase cognitive load. Are you sure? Confirm before commit. Eliminate slips & mistakes. A slip is an unconscious, inattentive error. A mistake is a conscious error, but domain (mental model) mismatch. I auto-populated these fields. Design so interface favors recognition over recall. Ways to make you more efficient. Enable power-users. Aesthetic & minimalist, but not necessarily flat design. I've written stuff so you can learn more about me. Provide help and documentation. --- As I worked on this, I realized some of this could improve communication between people.

prox 3y ago
Pliancy : this is something you can manipulate
- turtleyacht 3y ago
  Thank-you. Porcelain vs plumbing
kitsunesoba 3y ago
> You can take things back. Undo grants freedom from frustration. > Are you sure? Confirm before commit. Eliminate slips & mistakes. A slip is an unconscious, inattentive error. A mistake is a conscious error, but domain (mental model) mismatch. Additionally, don't use the former as a replacement for the latter. While a way to undo destructive things should be present wherever possible, they should also be prevented from happening in the first place where reasonably possible. Google apps are bad about this. Rather than add a small amount of friction to avert common types of disasters, they tend to lean on undo, which works fine until you end up too distracted to notice the little "X happened [Undo]" notification until you realize what happened a week later when the action you accidentally committed has become irrevocable.
- graypegg 3y ago
  An example of a product that has a well made undo feature is Jetbrains’ IDEA. Whole file operations (move, delete, rename) and refactoring tasks are included in the undo stack. They even let you browse the undo stack in the “local history” tool, which has totally ruined a lot of other editors for me.
prime17569 3y ago
Apple's old OS X Human Interface Guidelines (pre-OS X Yosemite)[1] said almost exactly the same things. https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021344if_/https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/OSXHIGuidelines.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021344if_/https://develo...
graypegg 3y ago
I kept your receipts: don’t create leaves in your navigation tree that can be only accessed once. An example is “order complete” screens that aren’t under the “active orders” or “receipts” page, but are their own special page that the user isn’t sure if they can get back to.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

I've followed these basic principles for decades (Full disclosure: I've taken NNG courses -quite a few). They're really just basic common sense, but you know how it goes... > Common Sense: So rare, that it's a super power. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2b/ac/61/2bac61a609a63386b8342c757a4a6d34--common-sense-superpower.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2b/ac/61/2bac61a609a63386b8342c757...

pentagrama 3y ago

Original source https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

uxcolumbo 3y ago

Congrats on launching. Nice and short domain name, but it reminds me of Orwell’s book 1984 - not sure that’s a good thing or not. But depends who you’re trying to target. If it’s folks born in the early 2000s they might not know about it. Also, if you’re trying to create an online learning site with paid content in the future, it might be difficult to compete with sites like ixdf.org. Little nit pick ;) To follow one of the heuristics, I would make the logo go to the home page rather than bringing up the flyout for changing to dark mode. Nice one for trying out new things!

boraoztunc 3y ago
Thank you for your comment. You are right about Orwell, he and his books has influence on me. He's a great author, so let's agree on good :) Also, I was born in 1984, fav commercial Ridley Scott shot for Apple's Macintosh personal computer launch, and a couple of things. 1984.design is a passion project for me, after 15 years of a design career, I like to share knowledge more than serving clients and their projects. That's why I'm putting my efforts into learning and growing together with fellow designers while I'm getting older. I just want to do what I love, without getting caught up in thinking about competition. There is a small knit of people we can build great communities with. And that would be enough for me. I love IxDF btw, they provide excellent education for affordable prices and 1984 is a certified educational partner. And let's take a note here why using third-party software sucks, you can't even change the logo to go to home page. Which should be because it is a common habit, I don't even put "home" to top navigations and menus as people are clicking logos to navigate to the main page. See you around.