Rules and Guidelines for Human-Centered Interface Design

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Rules and Guidelines for Human-Centered Interface Design

System Analysis and Design · Chapter 5: Interface Design and Systems ArchitectureSection 5.1 · lesson 34 of 698 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

Shneiderman's rules, Nielsen's heuristics, and Norman's principles.

  • Explain HCI, and why interface design follows principles, not taste
  • Apply Shneiderman's 8 Golden Rules
  • Apply Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics
  • Explain Norman's 4 principles, and compare the 3 frameworks

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,000 words). Read along, or search it.

Interface Design and Systems Architecture

Human-Centered Interface Design

Chapter five turns to the part of a system people actually see and touch. The interface. This first section is about the rules behind good interface design. Three well-established frameworks give designers a shared, tested vocabulary. Ben Shneiderman's eight golden rules, Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics, and Donald Norman's four principles of everyday design. We will see what each one says, and what each one is best used for.

Beyond Personal Taste

Human-Computer Interaction

Human-computer interaction, or H C I, is the field concerned with how people use computer systems. And with how to design those systems so people can use them well. Why do we need a field for this at all? Why not just use good taste? Because an interface built on personal taste alone tends to feel intuitive to the person who built it, and confusing to everyone else. The builder already knows how it works. Nobody else does. The three frameworks in this section each do a different job. Shneiderman gives rules for designing an interface. Nielsen gives heuristics for evaluating one. And Norman gives principles for understanding why people find certain designs easy or hard in the first place.

Shneiderman's Golden Rules (1 of 2)

Rules for Designers

Ben Shneiderman's eight golden rules are aimed directly at designers. The first is strive for consistency. Use consistent terminology, layout, and actions in similar situations, so behavior stays predictable. The second is to enable frequent users to use shortcuts. Give experienced users accelerators, such as keyboard shortcuts, for tasks they repeat often. The third is to offer informative feedback. Every action gets a visible response, scaled to how significant the action was. The fourth is to design dialogs to yield closure. Organize a sequence of actions into a beginning, a middle, and an end, so users know when a task is actually finished.

Shneiderman's Golden Rules (2 of 2)

Fewer Errors, Less to Remember

The fifth rule is to offer simple error handling. Design so errors are hard to make. And when one happens, explain clearly how to recover. The sixth is to permit easy reversal of actions. Make actions undoable wherever possible. That lowers anxiety, and encourages people to explore. The seventh is to support an internal locus of control. Let experienced users feel they are directing the system, rather than reacting to it. And the eighth is to reduce short-term memory load. Keep displays simple, and never require users to remember information from one screen while they use another. Follow these rules while building an interface, and many usability problems never occur at all.

Nielsen's Heuristics (1 of 2)

A Checklist for Reviewers

Jakob Nielsen's ten heuristics are aimed at evaluation. They give reviewers a checklist for spotting problems in an interface that already exists. Visibility of system status. Keep users informed about what is happening, through timely, appropriate feedback. Match between the system and the real world. Use words and concepts familiar to the user, not internal system jargon. User control and freedom. Provide a clearly marked way to back out of an unwanted action, without a lengthy process. Consistency and standards. Follow platform and industry conventions, so users never wonder whether different words mean the same thing. And error prevention. Design to prevent problems before they occur, rather than relying only on good error messages afterward.

Nielsen's Heuristics (2 of 2)

Recognition, Efficiency, and Recovery

Recognition rather than recall. Keep objects, actions, and options visible, rather than making users remember them. Flexibility and efficiency of use. Provide accelerators for experts, while keeping the interface usable for novices. Aesthetic and minimalist design. Avoid irrelevant or rarely needed information that competes with what actually matters. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Error messages should use plain language, state the problem, and suggest a solution. And help and documentation. Even a well-designed system may need help content. Keep it searchable, and focused on the user's actual task. Notice how many of these echo Shneiderman. The difference is when you use them. After the interface exists, to find what is wrong.

Norman's Principles

The Psychology of Everyday Design

Where Shneiderman and Nielsen give practical rules, Donald Norman explains the underlying psychology. Why some designs feel obvious, and others leave people stuck. Four of his ideas are especially useful. Affordance. In software, a button that visibly looks clickable. Feedback. A confirmation message after a save. Mapping. A volume slider whose right end actually increases the volume, just as people expect. And constraints. A grayed-out button that cannot be clicked until its required fields are filled in. Affordance and constraints shape what a user believes they can do with a control. Feedback and mapping shape whether the result matches what they expected. When a design feels confusing, one of these four has usually been broken.

Putting Them Together

3 Frameworks, 3 Jobs

So how do the three frameworks fit together? Shneiderman's golden rules are design rules. They guide decisions while an interface is being built. Nielsen's heuristics are an evaluation checklist. They find problems in an interface that already exists. Norman's principles are cognitive theory. They explain why a design does or does not feel intuitive. The three overlap, and they do so on purpose. Shneiderman's informative feedback, Nielsen's visibility of system status, and Norman's feedback all describe the same underlying need. They just approach it from three angles. Designing, evaluating, and explaining. That is why all three stay useful together, rather than making each other redundant.

Key Terms

The Vocabulary of This Section

Let's lock in the key terms. Human-computer interaction is the field concerned with how people use computer systems, and how to design them for effective use. Affordance is a property of an object that suggests how it should be used. Mapping is the relationship between a control and its effect, judged by how well it matches what users naturally expect. And a heuristic is a general, practical rule of thumb used to evaluate a design, rather than a strict formula.

Key Takeaways

What to Carry Forward

To pull this together. Shneiderman's eight golden rules guide decisions while an interface is being designed. Nielsen's ten heuristics give a checklist for evaluating an interface that already exists. Norman's four principles, affordance, feedback, mapping, and constraints, explain the psychology of why an interface feels intuitive or confusing. And the three frameworks overlap, because they describe the same usability needs from different angles. Designing, evaluating, and explaining.

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System Analysis and Design carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Rules and Guidelines for Human-Centered Interface Design

What are Shneiderman's eight golden rules of interface design?
Ben Shneiderman's eight golden rules are: strive for consistency, enable frequent users to use shortcuts, offer informative feedback, design dialogs to yield closure, offer simple error handling, permit easy reversal of actions, support an internal locus of control, and reduce short-term memory load. They are aimed at designers, guiding decisions while an interface is being built so many usability problems never occur.
What are Nielsen's ten usability heuristics used for?
Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics are used to evaluate an existing interface and spot its problems. They are visibility of system status, match between the system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, helping users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, and help and documentation.
What are affordance, feedback, mapping, and constraints in Don Norman's design principles?
Affordance, feedback, mapping, and constraints are four of Donald Norman's principles explaining why a design feels intuitive or confusing. Affordance suggests how something is used, like a button that looks clickable. Feedback confirms an action, like a message after saving. Mapping matches a control to its expected effect, like a slider whose right end raises volume. Constraints limit actions, like a grayed-out button until required fields are filled.
How do Shneiderman's rules, Nielsen's heuristics, and Norman's principles differ?
The three frameworks do different jobs: Shneiderman's golden rules guide designing an interface, Nielsen's heuristics evaluate an interface that already exists, and Norman's principles explain the psychology of why a design feels easy or hard. They overlap on purpose. For example, Shneiderman's informative feedback, Nielsen's visibility of system status, and Norman's feedback all describe the same need from the angles of designing, evaluating, and explaining.

About the System Analysis and Design course

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System Analysis and Design (Computer Science 390) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
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