Principles of user interface design
There are 7 principles that can be used to guide or evaluate design at any time in the process.
| Principle | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| row 1, cell 1 | row 1, cell 2 | row 1, cell 3 |
| row 2, cell 1 | row 2, cell 2 | row 2, cell 3 |
Visibility, Clarity Is the goal obvious? Icons used? Feedback, Information sent back to user after their action Sound? Label showing success or failure? Affordance Clarity of use of an element Label "Push" on one side of a door; a button saying "Click Me" Simplicity KISS (keep it simple, silly) Open File option on a menu Structure Elements set out in a meaningful way from the perspective of the user Grouped information in a dialogue box. Consistency Easy to learn and remember appearance, positioning and behaviour. X to close a window is always on top right hand side of the window; the most important buttons are the same size with only labels indicating different goals. Tolerance Prevents errors or make them easy to recover from Greying out of disabled menu options; ignoring of wrong or invalid keyboard input.