Usability:

Usability Principles
● Categories
– Learnability
● Support for learning for users of all levels
– Flexibility
● Support for multiple ways of doing tasks
– Robustness
● Support for recovery
● Always think about exceptions, suitability
● Also good for prioritizing usability evaluation

1. Learnability Principles: Ease with which new users can begin effective
interaction and achieve maximal performance
– Predictability
– Synthesizability
– Familiarity Metaphor
– Generalizability
– Consistency

2. Flexibility Principles: Multiplicity of ways that users and system exchange

information
– Dialog Initiative
– Multithreading
– Task migratability
– Substitutivity
– Customizability
 3. Robustness Principles: Supporting user in determining successful
achievement and assessment of goals
– Observability
– Error Prevention
– Recoverability
– Responsiveness
– Task Conformance

More Usability heuristics (Nielsen 2001)

● Visibility of system status
● Match between system and the real world
● User control and freedom
● Consistency and standards
● Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
● Error prevention
● Recognition rather than recall
● Flexibility and efficiency of use
● Aesthetic and minimalist design
● Help and documentation

Universal design principles

● equitable use
● flexibility in use
● simple and intuitive to use
● perceptible information
● tolerance for error
● low physical effort
● size and space for approach and use

User experience goals:

– Satisfying
– Entertaining
– Enjoyable
– Fun
– Helpful
– Motivating
– Aesthetically pleasing
– Rewarding
– Emotionally fulfilling
– Support creativity
– …and more

Example
Most important usability principles for
– Bus stop kiosk
– Instant messenger
– Flight control

Styleguides

 Codify many of these principles for a particular look and feel – Mac OS,
Windows, Motif, Palm, Blackberry
 Developed in concert with toolkit, but go beyond toolkit