2 - Fundamentals Flashcards
Why are discoverability and understanding important in good design?
Discoverability because it tells you what actions are possible and where you can perform them. Understanding because it tells you how to use the product.
What is Schneiderman’s Strive for Consistency heuristic?
Use consistent standards across models to facilitate usability for users.
What is Schneiderman’s Enable frequent users to use shortcuts heuristic?
Allow expert users to use shortcuts (ex. ctr + c) to maximize efficiency of use.
What is Schneiderman’s Offer informative feedback heuristic?
Users should know where they are and what is going on at all times (timely & understandable feedback)
What is Schneiderman’s Design dialogs to yield closure heuristic?
The interface should return some feed that indicates that a process has ended (ex. online payment -> end with verification that payment has gone through)
What is Schneiderman’s Offer error prevention and simple error handling heuristic?
An interface should tell the user that something has gone wrong, and provide instructions on how to solve it.
What is Schneiderman’s Permit easy reversal of actions heuristic?
User can undo his/ her actions.
What is Schneiderman’s Support Internal Locus in Control?
Give users the sense that they are in full control.
Ex. double-check with user that they want to delete something.
What is Schneiderman’s Reduce short-term memory load heuristic?
Interface should be simple & recognizable (computer should do most of the work).
What is Norman’s Discoverability principle?
Users should be able to determine possible actions from the object’s interface. Discoverability stems from good design principles.
What is Norman’s Affordances principle?
Users should know what an object can afford from the way it looks.
What is Norman’s Signifiers principle?
An interface can be complemented by signals that clarify how to use an object.
What is Norman’s Feedback principle?
Feedback should be immediate, informative, planned, and prioritized.
What is Norman’s Constraints principle?
Interactions should be limited; give users limited options.
What is Norman’s Conceptual Models principle?
The representation a user makes in his/ her mind should match the designer’s
What is Norman’s Mapping principle?
There should be a good relationship between the controls, movements, and the results on the interface.
Ex. a scrollbar (move it up, page goes up)
What is Nielson’s Visibility of System Status heuristic?
Users should be informed about what is going on with the object.
What is Nielson’s Match between the system and the real-world heuristic?
Design should speak the user’s language.
Ex. use a trash can item to symbolize deleted files in a computer
What is Nielson’s User control and freedom heuristic?
An “emergency exit” to leave an unwanted action
What is Nielson’s Consistency and standards heuristic?
Similar interfaces/ updates should follow the same standards.
What is Nielson’s Error prevention heuristic?
Good error messages and preventions.
Ex. password requirements
What is Nielson’s Recognition rather than recall heuristic?
The user should recognize design elements, but should not have to recall.
What is Nielson’s Flexibility and Efficiency of use heuristic?
Interfaces should have shortcuts that are not visible to novice users
What is Nielson’s Aesthetic and minimalist design heuristic?
An interface should not contain irrelevant or rarely used information.
What is Nielson’s help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors heuristic?
Interfaces should provide interpretable error messages, not error codes.
What is a heuristic evaluation
Method for finding usability problems in a user interface design (usability problems x evaluators, black box indicates a problem)
