If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had experience building a website before and know a little about interface design. In this post, I’ll discuss the 'eight golden rules' of interface design which was built upon by Ben Shneiderman. [1] If this is the first time you’ve heard about interface design, then I recommend having a look at the blog post ‘Interface design & usability for beginners’ before reading more.
It is important to know that your website identifies you or your company on the internet and is the first thing that many of your new or existing customers will see. When building your website, it is important to think about interface design as this will have a huge impact on how successful your website will become. Would you use a poorly designed website over another which was well designed? Even if the poorly designed website offered more services and better information? Chances are that you would use the well-designed website instead. Think about your website as a further extension of you or your company and say to yourself ‘Would I like people to see the way that I am portraying myself / my company online?’. A well-designed website will lay the foundations for your web presence to flourish in the future and the eight golden rules will help you lay these foundations.
The 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design
1. Consistency
When building a website, you need to make sure that it’s consistent. This allows the user to become more familiar with how to use the website. Being consistent is extremely important. If every webpage is different, for example, the navigation bar is in different places on each page, then the user will get confused and most likely frustrated. Using the same sequences of actions, layouts, fonts, colours schemes etc. will make visiting your website an enjoyable experience. [1]
2. Universal Usability
Another aspect to consider is catering to universal usability. Not every user is the same, in fact, many users will be vastly different. Whether that comes down to individual differences such as culture and age or catering towards people with disabilities. Catering to as many users as possible will improve your websites ability to reach a greater audience. For example, different cultures will have different languages, so having a website that supports multiple languages is more universal. A website that factors in people who are colour blind will use specific colours on important pieces of information in order to cater to them. So, remember to use features that will support more than one type of user, which could range from shortcuts and help dialogues to different colours and language options. [1]
3. Offer Informative Feedback
When building your website, it’s a good idea to think about offering informative feedback. As Ben Shneiderman said, “For every user action, there should be an interface feedback”. [1] If you’re visiting a website, you don’t want to be sat there by clicking on things wondering if anything is happening. As a user, you want to know that something has happened. Every element of your website that is intractable by the user should offer system feedback. [1]
4. Design Dialogs to Yield Closure
Sequences of informative feedback should be grouped, with all of them having a beginning, middle and an end. Completion of group actions should give the user a sense of accomplishment, thus yielding closure. This is a good idea as users can identify where they are in the process. For example, a virtual shopping cart to check out. [1]
5. Prevent Errors
Preventing errors may seem self-explanatory when making a website but it’s important that you design the interface so that users don’t run into errors as this will lead to frustration. The interface should provide the user with simple instructions to recover if they encounter an error. [1]
6. Allow Actions to be Reversible
Actions on your website that users can make should be reversible if possible, as this allows the user to relax and get on with using the website. Examples include an obvious and easy-to-use undo option by undoing a simple data-entry task, or by undoing a complete group of actions, such as filling in fields on a contact form. [1]
7. Keep Users in Control
If you’re an experienced user of a system, you want to know that you’re in control and that the system will respond to your actions. If there are hidden surprises or changes in familiar behaviour of the system, the user will get annoyed at this. [1]
8. Reduce Short-Term Memory Load
The term “seven plus or minus two chunks” [1] refers to the amount of information that a human can process at any given time. When people use your website, it’s more beneficial for them to not have to remember huge chunks of information as they’ll start forgetting some of it. It is important to reduce the amount of information that the user will need to remember, as this will lead to a more enjoyable experience. [1]
Author: Sonny Loveridge
Editor: Ruby Osborne
references:
[1] B. Shneiderman, “The Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design,” University of Maryland, May 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/ben/goldenrules.html. [Accessed 09 02 2019].
[Figure 1] Free From Wix Images. "Developer looking at the screen". CC0. 2019.
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