Design Principles

Author: Michelle McCausland

This page contains the notes taken from the UX training course “UX Foundation Online” provided by UXTraining.com

• Design principles & patterns - high level guidelines

Perceivable

• Should be understood by viewing
• What can it do
• What is it asking me to do
• What do I do first

Predictable

• Risk-reward calculations
• How long it takes
• What you need to do
• What you're going to get
• What happens next

Affordances

• Visual cues - traffic lights, door handles
• If you need instructions for very simple tasks then your design has failed
• Harness natural qualities

Conventions

• Established interface patterns
• Saving time and mental energy
• Conventional symbols

Feedback

• Confirmation / error messages
• Show user that the interface is responding to their actions
• can often be very minimal

Constraints

• Limit your options to keep you focused
• Filling in forms
• Less likely to get sidetracked from task

Forgiveness

• Humans are error prone
• How to be forgiving - strong affordances, reversibility of actions, confirmations, warnings, help

Hick's Law

• The time it takes to make a decision depends on the number of options present
• Don't overload users with choices
• Let them move through your software