8 Golden Rules To Design Better Interfaces

Follow Ben Shneiderman’s ‘Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design’ if you want to design great, productive and frustration-free user interfaces:

  1. Strive for consistency: Standardize the way information is conveyed
  2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts: With increased use comes the demand for quicker methods of completing tasks – Don’t penalize but reward the good user
  3. Offer informative feedback: For every action, there should be appropriate, human-readable and relevant feedback
  4.  Design dialogue to yield closure: Don’t keep your users guessing. Tell them what their action has led them to. For example, users would appreciate a “Thank You” message and a proof of purchase receipt when they’ve completed an online purchase
  5. Offer simple error handling: No one likes to be told they’re wrong, especially your users. Systems should be designed to be as fool-proof as possible, but when unavoidable errors occur, ensure users are provided with simple, intuitive step-by-step instructions to solve the problem as quickly and painlessly as possible. For example, flag the text fields where the users forgot to provide input in an online form
  6. Permit easy reversal of actions: This feature relieves anxiety since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options
  7. Support internal locus of control: Give users the sense that they are in full control
  8. Reduce short-term memory load: Recognizing something is always easier than recall

 

Reference: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/shneiderman-s-eight-golden-rules-will-help-you-design-better-interfaces

 

Behzad

 

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