Jakob Nielsen is the co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a renowned consulting firm at the forefront of all things related to research on user experience, which has had a significant impact on the web design and software. Jakob Nielsen has already developed the following 10 usability principles in the 1990s but have been updated in November 2020 following the analysis of 249 related issues.
Such is the amount of information on the internet about the fashionable UX/UI that it is sometimes appropriate to limit oneself to theories and enquiries with a certain degree of rigour. These principles are "general rules"that can go beyond the web world but are very important to consider when building any interface. user-friendly.
Today we recall what they call the "rules of the game", the "rules of the game", the "rules of the game". 10 usability principles which should not be forgotten.
1 - Keep your users informed
The website has to provide up-to-date information on what is going on. at the moment. In an e-commerce, for example, we must warn the user if an item has been added to the cart or if a product is out of stock. These notices should be in a certain colour and style, easily identifiable.
This rule may not seem as relevant on corporate sites as it does on an online shop or an application, where there is more interaction, but the same warnings may apply if the reader writes an blog comment, for example.
2 - Use the language of your audience
All the terms of the website must be easy to interpret and relatives for the person who is going to read you, avoiding internal jargon at all costs. It sounds like a simple rule but, in practice, there are more than a few websites that speak more to themselves than to the reader from the outside world.
3 - Provides user control
How many times have you struggled to find the button "unsubscribe". in certain interfaces? Attempting to hold back what the user will end up doing anyway only detracts from the trust and usability of our site.
In this regard, Nielsen puts particular emphasis on facilitating the "starting box".. Having a clear option to "cancel" an action is essential for the person interacting to feel in control of what they are doing at all times.
4 - Respect certain conventions
Users don't just visit our site, they consume countless content digital. Even though we want to innovate and make our website unique, there are certain conventions which should be respected so as not to mislead or affect the user experience.
A very basic but also very clarifying example is the logo of websites. It usually goes on the header and it is clickable to return to the home page. It is something that all web consumers have more than assimilated. What would happen if we suddenly decided to put the logo in the middle of the page and when clicking on it, it would take us to "who we are", for example? It would probably be very innovative, but in terms of usability it would not make sense and would generate confusion. The same could be extrapolated to many other "unwritten rules" of the web ecosystem.
5 - Error prevention
Error messages are important but it is even more so prevent them. Most actions are consciously carried out by the user, but others are mistakes or movements that were not intended.
In this regard, it is advisable to warn the user if he/she is going to carry out any action that is irreversible, for example, with the typical message "Are you sure you want to delete your account permanently?" "Do you want to remove this product from your shopping cart?
6 - Keep important information visible
The user should not have to remember essential information from one part of the interface to another. We are more prone to recognise something that a remember it. For this reason, it is advisable to reduce as much information as possible to remember from scratch.
For example, an ecommerce site could have a list of "recently viewed products", to make it easier for the user to remember everything he or she has visited.
7 - Systems for novices and experts
The design of our website/application must be intuitive for both the user and the people who visit us often as for a new user. We are talking about customised interfaces that show shortcuts o quick actionsThe Committee would also like to see more expert users (who already know where they want to go). These shortcuts would be hidden to new users, who simply have to discover the site and the paths it offers them.
8 - Minimalist design
In web design, perhaps the 'norm' is most important and the hardest to convey. This is a trend that is on the rise but still has its detractors. From a usability perspective, the design should focus on the essentials for your user, discarding every element unnecessary that misleads or contributes nothing.
We still get carried away by pure aesthetics to add elements and elements that may look nice visually but do not have an aesthetic value. communication objective clear and mislead the user from the action we want them to perform.
An example of this is the typical image slider The full-width image that was very popular a few years ago. When the image changed, the text message of that image changed as well. What are we giving the user? Mini messages of a few seconds that are going to scatter their attention. We won't get them to focus on any of them.
9 - Easy to understand error messages
Ideally, it would not just say "error", but a clear explanation of why it happened, if possible, and what the user can do at that point, an escape route from the error.
For example, we should pay attention to 404 pages. They are pages like any other that we can design as we wish, so a good practice would be to add a button of "back to home". o "back to the shop"..
10 - Help and documentation
This last rule applies mainly to sites with a somewhat more complex interaction, but sometimes it can be a good idea to offer a extra information additional. The most basic case would be a "frequently asked questions". (depending on the complexity of the case). If you have this additional information, it should be clearly visible at all times.
In conclusion
Some of these 10 usability principles may seem very basic to you, but the basics is precisely that which sometimes we forget. These "commandments" remain since 1994 and can provide us with valuable information when building our site.
Go back to basics.
Can you think of some principle of usability more?