Software Usability Abstract

There are a few useful notes on software usability / Human Computer Interaction (HCI), written on hallway the whiteboards in the Century Link St. Louis office that I feel provide a good summary of the topic. These reminded me of the HCI class I took with Bill White.

Elements of User Centered Design

• P: Personas
• UA: User Analytics
• UT: Usability Testing
• CI: Contextual Inquiry (Context by user)
• ID: Interactive Design
• HE: Heuristic Analysis (Best Practice Review)
• PT: Prototype Testing
• CA: Competitive Analysis
• IA: Information Architecture
• VD: Visual Design

Usability: The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with with specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments.

10 Usability Best Practices

1. Visibility of System Status: Give users appropriate feedback about what is going on.
2. User Control and Freedom: Support undo, redo and exit points to help users leave an unwanted state caused by mistakes.
3. Aesthetic And Minimalist Design: Don’t show irrelevant or rarely needed information since every extra element diminishes the relevance of the others.
4. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: Make the system efficient for different experience levels through shortcuts, advanced tools and frequent actions.
5. Help and Documentation: Make necessary help and documentation easy to find and search focused.
6. Match Between System and the Real World: Use real world words, concepts and conventions familiar to the users in a natural and logical order.
7. Error Prevention: Prevent problems from occurring: eliminate error prone conditions or check for them before users commit to action.
8. Consistency and Standards: Follow platform conventions through consistent words, situations and actions.
9. Recognition Rather than Recall: Make objects, actions, and options visible at the appropriate time to minimize users memory load and facilitate decisions.
10. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors: Express error messages in plain language (no codes) to indicate the problem and suggest solutions.