1_Usability Principles - Copy.pdf

Usability Principles Introduction  It focuses on ensuring that the design is intuitive, allowing users to accomplish tasks with minimal effort, errors, and confusion. “Don’t make me think.” – Steve Krug, usability expert Industrial designers and software engineers have long had to con...

Usability Principles Introduction  It focuses on ensuring that the design is intuitive, allowing users to accomplish tasks with minimal effort, errors, and confusion. “Don’t make me think.” – Steve Krug, usability expert Industrial designers and software engineers have long had to consider usability principles. But with the rapid rise of smartphones, streaming services, and other smart devices, understanding usability is now essential for graphic designers and digital product designers alike. Principle 1: Learnability Things should be easy to learn, and intuitive where possible. Intuitive" means something that is easy to understand or use without the need for much explanation or instruction. Here are two TV remote controls — one with poor learnability (left), and the other with better learnability (right). For example, a smartphone with icons that resemble real-world objects (like a camera icon for taking pictures) is considered intuitive because users can easily guess what the icons represent without needing to read a manual. Learnability: How quickly and easily new users can learn to use the system. Principle 2: Efficiency A design that allows people to complete a task successfully, and with as few steps as possible, is efficient. Efficiency refers to how effectively a task can be completed with the least amount of time, effort, and resources. Here are two interfaces for booking a taxi — the first demonstrates high efficiency, and the second low efficiency. For example, a software program that allows users to complete their tasks with fewer clicks or less input is considered more efficient than one that requires more steps to achieve the same result. Efficiency: How quickly experienced users can complete tasks. Principle 3: Memorability It should be as easy as possible to remember how something works. If a product has good memorability, someone can go a long time without using it, and still recall how to use it. Memorability refers to how easily a user can remember how to use a product or system after not using it for a while. For example, a stapler has very high memorability, and a standard USB cable has famously poor memorability — how many days is it since you last tried plugging a cable in upside-down? For example, if someone uses a website once, and when they return a month later they can still navigate it easily without needing to figure things out again, that website has good memorability. Memorability: How easily users can re-learn the system after not using it for a while. Principle 4: Error reduction and forgiveness Things should be designed in such a way that; 1) people are unlikely to make mistakes, and 2) they can understand any mistakes they do make, and easily correct them. This refers to designing systems, interfaces, or processes in ways that prevent users from making mistakes in the first place. This refers to the system’s ability to help users recover from mistakes without major consequences. In the example below, we’ve illustrated two very different ways of handling a declined card payment. In the first one, the user is presented with an explanation of the problem, and instructions on how to fix it. In the second one, the user receives a technical error message from the system, and isn’t able to move forward. Error handling: How often users make errors and how easily they can recover from them. Principle 5: Satisfaction Satisfaction is about how good someone feels after completing a task or using a product. refers to the level of contentment or pleasure users experience when interacting with a product, system, or service. For example, both a cuckoo clock and a digital clock allow people to tell the time efficiently, but many people might be more satisfied by the motion, colours, and sounds of the cuckoo clock. Satisfaction: How pleasant the experience is for the user. These five usability principles are the foundation of any well-designed experience: learnability, efficiency, memorability, error reduction and error forgiveness, and satisfaction. Good usability is crucial for creating user- friendly designs that meet the needs and expectations of users. Key points… Usability is about how easy it is to learn and remember how to use something. It’s also about how efficiently tasks can be completed, and what happens when someone makes a mistake. Considering user satisfaction can further elevate usability. Activity: Identifying Usability Principles ① Go on a design treasure hunt - Find at least 4 designed objects or experiences (table, car, fence, news app, shopping website, etc.) withing the campus and try to identify a least two “good” and two “bad” examples of each usability principle. (You should take pictures) ② Explain and reflect on each example you found - Using your notepad, a text document, or a pen and paper, briefly explain and reflect on each example. Activity: Identifying Usability Principles What is it about the object or experience that demonstrates good or bad application of the usability principle in question? Did you notice anything unexpected or surprising during your analysis of the object or experience? For examples of bad usability, do you have ideas about how the experience could improved? Why do you imagine those things weren’t done to start with? Usability Principles Learnability Efficiency Memorability Error reduction and error forgiveness Satisfaction