Category: Usability

I came across this really nicely-explained list of things to keep in mind when designing user interfaces. I’ll copy the short list here, but you owe it to yourself to check it out in full…. Ten Usability Heuristics by Jakob Nielsen These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called “heuristics” because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines. Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world Read more…

VERY nice post on usability over on icefox’s blog. It’s always good to keep these things at the forefront of our collective geeky brains, since as is stated yonder, “users will suffer until good design comes along.” This is precisely the point that so many people miss–good design is not an option or an afterthought. It is a must and it must come early in the process. Most of the time, this (intelligent, well-thought-out design) is overlooked until it’s painfully obvious that it’s broken–and this is also (not conincidentally) the most inopportune time to be thinking about it, since in most cases what is required to fix the problem is deeper than cosmetic changes, going down into deep architectural problems Read more…