Interface Design Examples Search based on Heuristics 3 - Assignment Example

Number: Lecturer: Heuristics is an important lesson and an issue that is well taken care of when designing user interfaces. Thispaper will analyze 10 heuristics by Nielsen Jakob. i. Visibility of system statusThis is an important heuristic as it keeps users informed of what the system is doing. This heuristic means that when a user interacts with a site of a system, they should get a response that what they fed to the system was correct. An example is when someone clicks an icon in Mac’s OS X.

The icon that was clicked will jump. This will inform the user that they are on the right track and that there is some activity taking place. ii. Match between the system and the real worldThis heuristic advocates speaking the language of the users. The users should not find it hard understanding the system. The words, phrases and the concepts that are used by the system should be used and common terms by users. The image below shows what the iTunes interface looks at the terms that are used are common users. iii. User control and freedomThe user has the freedom to choose and move away from the mistake they might have done.

There should be navigation buttons like undo that will enable the users to get away from the mistakes that they have done. The figure below shows word processing of Apple. iv. Consistency and standards Users should not be left to wonder if some change in the wording of common interface means the use of that interface has changed. The conventions that are used by the platform should remain the same. It should not be changed. The figure in this example shows different words that are used in Gmail. v. Error prevention The system should help users in doing away with an error that might occur if a certain action is taken.

An example is the Yammer website where the user is to update information on the website. After the user has updated the information, the button on the Update page is disabled so that an error is not made in subsequent updates (Papp 74). vi. Recognition rather than recallThe need for users to recall should be minimized as much as possible. The memory of the users should be spared. The users should not remember information from the first part of the process. An example is coding. The user should type ahead when coding and all the information that user needs will pop up.

This is common in Quanta IDE (Papp 82). vii. Flexibility and efficiency of useThere should be actions that will help in the process of interaction between the user and the system. This should be common for both the novice and the experienced user. The users should be allowed to tailor actions which are frequent. An example is an Apple spreadsheet product. It has shortcuts that help users to get information quickly. viii. Aesthetic and minimalist designThere should be good and appealing design of the site.

There should not be too much design elements in the site. Dialogue boxes should not have information which is not needed in the suite. The Kontain interface that shows how users are to give the questions. As from the list given, all the information. ix. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errorsThe system enables users to get away from the errors that they may encounter. The error messages should be concise and easy to understand. The language should be plain such that the users can understand the error.

It should also suggest ways in which the errors can be corrected. The error on unavailable page is the example that shows how the page can be found on another page. x. Help and documentationThere should be documentation about how help can be sought from the system. This helps the users to obtain information on how some processes are undertaken. An example is help procedure that is available at Picnik site. Works CitedPapp, Raymond. Strategic information technology: Opportunities for competitive advantage.

Pennsylvania: Idea Group Inc., 2001.