What are the main principles of Usability? You will find answers to this and many other questions in the article. The Usability principles are generally accepted views on the interaction with design, which were introduced by Nelsen Jakob (the founder of Usability). These views are more of a set of rules than rigid guidelines, which is why they are called "Heuristics". There are ten such principles in total.
Status visibility
The first principle of Usability is the visibility of a system's status. This position says that the user should know where he left off and what is happening. If this is a complex registration, you must indicate that this is the second step or the third.
Efficiency
The next principle of Usability is efficiency. In fact, it means that there must be a connection between each user and the system. Your site must be customized for a specific audience, you need to speak to them in their language, using their levelreadiness and designation. Therefore, a website should always be designed for its audience. This applies not only to the structure, but also to texts, design, help, visual perception of information, and so on.
Free choice
What is the third principle of Usability? Freedom of choice. This is user control, which is necessary so that the client can always be in control of the situation. For example, if a person fills out a form, they should always see a "clear form" button. What if it has multiple steps? The user should always be able to return to the previous items or skip any of them in order to repeat the action a little later.
Thanks to this situation, the user will get the impression that he is in control of everything, that no one is trying to confuse or deceive him. And the interface, tricky at first glance, with the right approach, will become ordinary. After all, it is much easier for a person to perform several simple actions than one complex one.
Standards
The fourth principle of Usability is consistency and standards. There are already certain well-established stereotypes on the Web (contacts in the upper corner, the type of basket, and so on). Nevertheless, one designation can have several types, so an inexperienced user can easily get lost among them. For example, electronic baskets are identical to carts, ordinary baskets, trendy bags and more. And for the appearance of the sequence, you need to choose some specific style that you needobserve everywhere. This applies to layout, and fonts, and text, and pictures.
Error Prevention
The fifth principle of Usability is error prevention. This rule says that the error should not be corrected, but warned. It is always necessary to eliminate random, unnecessary actions and, wherever possible, to simplify the choice. This can be a normal keyboard prompt.
This also applies to buttons. For example, the "Accept" offer is usually made brighter and larger than the "Clear form" request. You must provide information that you know about the information you enter (region code, phone format, and so on).
Simplify
The sixth principle is the rule "Find out is easier than remember." Simplify the life of users as much as possible, remember the information they previously entered (even from their previous visits to the site), give them hints. For example, if you use a multi-step registration system, show the person the fields that have already been completed if they will need them in the future.
Flexibility
The seventh principle of Usability is flexibility of use. According to this rule, the interface must be elastic, it must be tuned to the prevailing audience. Here, the basic emphasis is on simplicity with the average user in mind. Details for the advanced should be small. They can be placed in less visible parts of the screen, as such people will find them everywhere.
Design
Usability is the eighth design principle. It lies in aesthetics and minimalism. According to this rule,The interface should not contain information that the user does not need. Also, it should not contain information that a person will need in rare cases.
Similarly, you need to create forms: you can not ask the user for data that you do not need. Unfortunately, almost no one takes advantage of this position. In 90% of cases, customers are required to provide both the date of birth, and their home phone number, and mobile, e-mail, and even an address in order to only congratulate them on their name day or the New Year.
Help
The main principles of Usability should be known to every webmaster. The ninth vision of this applied science is to help users understand and correct errors. All misses need to be reported to people in ordinary, “human” language, and not in computer language. If the link was created incorrectly, you do not need to simply write 404. Report like this: "An error occurred while entering the page." If, filling out the form, the user forgot to indicate his phone number, write that there is an error in the data entry, and not just a “form error”.
Support
Why are the core principles of Usability so important? Let's look at the tenth principle, which is called "Documentation and assistance." Materials and support should be simple and understandable, easily accessible, consistent with the goals of the user. In addition, the documentation should not be voluminous. It needs to contain clear steps. If the materials are too large, you can make a short navigation to quickly navigate through sections, andalso search for support.
Usability
So, we have considered the main principles of Usability. But what is this discipline? "Usability" is a measure of the quality of the user experience obtained while interacting with a system or product. For example, it could be a software application, a website, or something else.
User Interfase Engineering has determined that 60% of the time people can't find the information they need on the web. As a result, their productivity decreases. They don't want to go back to the site because of which they are forced to waste precious time.
It is also known that Forrester Research has received some figures that show the amount of losses that have appeared due to poor quality "usability" of sites. Chain stores lose about 50% of customers who cannot find the product they need. Approximately 40% of users do not want to return to a site they did not enjoy working with.
Jakob Nelsen claims that research on people's behavior on the web has shown that they have a distaste for complex web sites and slow sites. He says users are unwilling to wait. They also don't want to figure out how to use the home page. There are no site instructions or training for web projects anywhere. Jakob knows that people want to skim pages and instantly understand the functionality of a website.
Creation
What is Usability Development? Its principle lies in the methodological approach to creating a site orany other user interface. Such development consists of several methods that are used in sequence in the process:
- gather requirements;
- prototyping and analysis;
- evaluation of opposite design options;
- studying user questions;
- proposing solutions and analyzing the site (or any other interface).
Testing
What is Usability testing? Not everyone knows the principle of this nuance. In general, it is part of the process of creating "Usability". In a typical test, a person needs to perform several tasks using a prototype (or other system). During operation, the observer records what the user says and does. Typically, this test is done with one or two people working together.
Analysis can collect data such as the mistakes users make, the sequence of actions a person takes to achieve a goal, when and where the audience encounters difficulties, how much people like the product, and how quickly they complete tasks. Most of the tests are used to identify and solve any problems the public has.
Steps of discipline
What steps does "Usability" consist of? To plan a website, you first need to understand why you are developing it, for whom, why and when your readers will visit your resource. If you answer these questions, you will discover the purpose of your site. Specific goals depend on the audience of the website and your organization.
In addition, you must define the objectives of the site "Usability". In accordance with the overall goals, your resource should be effective in application, easy to learn, easy to remember on repeat visits. And it also needs to satisfy the user.
Each Usability goal is important for most websites, but you can highlight others for different audiences and situations. It is known that the design is based on the needs of people, so you need to collect information not only about them, but also about the extent to which the existing site satisfies them. There are several data collection techniques that include server logs, feedback forms, usability testing of an existing website.
It's easier for people to interact with a real example than it is to reason about what will work best. Useful results can always be obtained with a website prototype that has minimal content and no graphics. Such an elementary prototype is suitable for the first test cycle.
Content should be placed only that which is necessary for site users. If you have a mountain of information, choose the ones that will be useful and pleasing to your audience. All information should be broken into small chunks with subheadings, as people want to quickly read what interests them. Remove unnecessary words from the text, use tables and lists.
Next, an interactive process is carried out - testing "Usability", which we wrote about above. Sometimes you need an interface, alreadydesigned in accordance with all regulations, tested. By the way, focus groups are the most accessible way to do your own analysis.
Components
So, using the rules and the Usability principle, you can create a resource that you will be proud of. The presence of this amazing item is a quality attribute that determines how easy the user interface is to use. The word "usability" also means a collection of techniques that improve the site in the process of creating it.
Usability has five quantitative components:
- Efficiency: Once users see the design, how quickly can they complete the same task?
- Learnability: how easy is it for people to implement basic tasks when using an interface they are not familiar with for the first time?
- Mistakes: how many mistakes does a person make, how serious are they, can he easily correct them?
- Memorability: if the user returns to the interface after a certain period of time, will he be able to regain his skills with it?
- Satisfaction: To what extent does a person enjoy using this interface?
Besides "Usability", there are many other important quality features of design. One of the key is usefulness. This attribute describes the functionality of the technical solution and determines the usefulness of the interface to users. "Usability" and practicality are equally important: why use a convenient program if it givesnot the result you want? A bad program is one that hypothetically works the way you want it to, but you don't like its complex interface. To analyze the usefulness of a project, you can use the same tools as when studying the quality of its "Usability".
On the Web, "Usability" is considered essential to survival. If the site is difficult to work with, visitors leave it very quickly. If the main page of a web site does not clearly and clearly indicate what the enterprise does, what tasks the resource allows you to perform, users will look for another web site. People will also leave if the site is confusing, hard to understand, and doesn't answer their key questions.
There are no such visitors who spend their time on mastering the interface of the site or carefully study the instructions for working with it. There are many other resources on the Web, so if a visitor stumbles upon a difficulty, you will lose them.
