Module 1 Flashcards
Usability Heuristics (21 cards)
10 Usability Heuristics for UI Design
- Visibility of System Status
- Match Between the System and the Real World
- User Control & Freedom
- Consistency & Standards
- Error Prevention
- Recognition Rather than Recall
- Flexibility & Efficiency of Use
- Aesthetic & Minimalist Design
- Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, & Recover from Errors
- Help & Documentation
Jakob’s Law
People spend most of their time using digital products other than yours.
Visibility of System Status
The design should always keep users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
Match Between the System and the Real World
The design should speak the user’s language: use common jargon familiar to the user, follow real-world conventions.
User Control & Freedom
Users need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave an unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.
Consistency & Standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing; it should all be consistent.
Error Prevention
The best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place.
Either:
- Eliminate error-prone conditions, or
- Check for error-prone conditions and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition Rather than Recall
Make elements, actions, and options visible.
The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another.
Flexibility & Efficiency of Use
Shortcuts (hidden from novice users) may speed up interactions for expert users.
Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic & Minimalist Design
Interface should not contain information that is irrelevant of rarely needed.
The visual elements of the interface should support the user’s primary goals.
Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, & Recover from Errors
Error messages should:
- be expressed in plain language
- precisely indicate the problem
- constructively suggest a solution
Error messages should be presented with visual treatments that will help users notice and recognize them.
Help & Documentation
Help and documentation should be easy to search and focused on the user’s task.
Concisely list concrete steps that need to be carried out.
2 Types of Errors
- Slips = unconscious errors caused by inattention
- Mistakes = conscious errors based on a mismatch between the user’s mental model and the design
Usability
A property of the relationship between humans with goal-driven tasks and an artifact.
Task Performance
The speed and success with which the goals can be accomplished.
User-Centered Design
Given humans with goals and tasks, design an artifact that helps to accomplish these tasks.
Iterative User-Centered Design
Given humans with goals and tasks, redesign an existing artifact that helps to accomplish these tasks faster and more successfully.
Usability Evaluation
Given humans with goals and tasks and a new artifact, identify usability issues that decrease task performance.
Method for finding usability flaws in a design by judging it relative to known principles for what makes UIs easy to use.
Empirical Usability Evaluation
Given humans with goals and tasks and an artifact, observe humans to identify usability issues that decrease task performance.
- Uses real data
- Gives the ground truth of what really happens
- More time consuming
Analytical Usability Evaluation
Given humans with goals and tasks and an artifact, assess for conformance to UI principles to identify usability issues that decrease task performance.
- Reveals usability issues faster
- Does not give ground truth
- Provides expectation of the issues that may occur
Heuristic
Rule of thumb
