10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design / Part 2
Welcome back to the second part of our article on usability heuristics! In Part 1, we covered the first five of Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics:
You can check Part 1 on this link
In this article, we'll dive into the remaining five heuristics and explore how they can help designers create more user-friendly products. These heuristics were first introduced in the 1990s, but they remain relevant and useful today.
Without further ado, let's jump into the next five usability heuristics and see how they can improve the user experience of your products!
6. Recognition Rather than recall
We all have a lot on our minds, so it's important to make things easy for users. Try to minimize the amount of information users need to remember. Offer suggestions or reminders for tasks that need to be done, so they don't have to think too hard or remember everything on their own. After all, the goal is to make their experience as stress-free and enjoyable as possible!
Example:
The last time a client visited his/her favorite webshop they left some items in the cart but didn't have time to finish the purchase as they needed to run to work. After a week they returned to the webshop but forgot what they searched for... Let's try to fix that with a cart that saves products users added to the cart and make sure we give them a notification popup that they left their products in the cart but didn't make a purchase.
This is a good example of both a great user experience for the user and a great feature for the e-commerce store to get more warm leads.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Making the design user-friendly for all is essential. It's important to remember that not all users have the same level of experience with the product. Some may be beginners, while others may be more experienced. We should aim to satisfy the needs of both novice and experienced users. We can't just design for experts because even experts were once beginners too.
Example:
It is important to give the user clear navigations and actions they can do to increase the efficiency of user flow and their flexibility to do more actions.
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8. Aesthetic and Minimalist design
Making things look good is not just about filling the space with fancy decorations. When we talk about aesthetic and minimalist design, it's about providing only the necessary information and removing everything else. We want to guide the users' attention toward what they need to do or provide them with the exact information they are looking for. We should avoid putting any irrelevant elements that could distract or confuse the users.
A good example of this kind of design is Google.com. You can also compare it with other search engines to see how they differ in terms of aesthetics and minimalism.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
Make it easy for users to identify what's causing an error and provide them with a solution to resolve it. If users don't receive adequate assistance when an error occurs, they are likely to abandon the product.
Example:
In this example, the system tells the user that the entered username doesn't exist as soon as they finish typing it. This helps the user realize the mistake and correct it. If the error persists, they can use the recovery link to reset or recover their username.
10. Help and Documentation
It's normal for users to need help sometimes, and that's okay! It doesn't mean that the design is bad, but rather it gives us an opportunity to improve it.
We should always aim to make our product as intuitive and easy to use as possible, but we also need to acknowledge that some users may need more assistance than others. That's why having clear and helpful documentation is crucial to provide a better user experience.
Example:
When designing our product, it's important to anticipate that some users may need extra help to navigate it. We can do this by organizing different areas of the product in a clear and logical way, making it easy for users to find the right information.
We can also provide a FAQ section, which shows solutions to common problems that previous users have encountered. And for those who need more help, we can add a customer care button, allowing them to reach out for assistance via a voice call. By providing these resources, we can ensure that all users have a positive experience with our product