Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design

1. Visibility of system status: always keep users informed what is going on, through appropriate
feedback within reasonable time.
2. Match between system and real world: system should speak the users’ language, with words,
phrases and concepts familiar to the user – follow real-world conventions, information to
appear in a natural and logical order.
3. User control and freedom: clearly marked <<emergency exit>> when users make mistakes, to
leave unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and
redo.
4. Consistency and standards: don’t keep users wondering whether different words/actions mean
the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
5. Error prevention: careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place is
always better than any good error message.
6. Recognition rather than recall: Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily
retrievable whenever appropriate – make objects, actions and options visible, the users should
not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another
7. Flexibility and efficiency to use: allow user to tailor frequent actions – shortcuts/accelerators
may be unseen by novice users but may speed up interaction for expert users.
8. Aesthetic and minimalistic design: dialogues should not contain irrelevant or rarely used
information. Every extra unit of information diminishes the visibility of important and relevant
information.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors: error messages should be in plain
language, no code – precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
10. Help and documentation: if it’s necessary to have, it should be easy to search, focused on the
user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large
Schneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules For Better Interface

1. Strive for consistency: utilize familiar icons, colors, menu hierarchy, call-to-actions and user
flows – standardizing the way information is conveyed helps users become familiar with the
digital landscape of your product so they can achieve their goals more easily.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts: with increased use comes the demand for quicker
methods of completing tasks – example is keyboard shortcuts in Windows (WIN+D, ALT+TAB,
ALT+SHIFT, SHIFT+DEL, CTRL+C, CTRL+X, CTRL+V, ALT+ENTER, CTRL+S, ALT+F4, F5, CTRL+H,
ALT+A, CTRL+A, TAB, ESC, SHIFT+L/R/UP…)
3. Offer informative feedback: users should know where they are at and what is going on at all
times – for every action there should be appropriate, human-readable feedback within a
reasonable amount of time.
4. Design dialogue to yield closure: don’t keep users guessing – tell them what their action has led
them to.
5. Offer simple error handling: systems should be designed to be as fool-proof as possible, but
when unavoidable errors occur, ensure users are provided with simple, intuitive step-by-step
instructions to solve the problem – for example, flag the text fields where users forgot to
provide input.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions: designers should aim to offer users obvious ways to reverse
their actions – this feature relieves anxiety and encourages exploration of unfamiliar options.
7. Support internal locus of control: allow users to be initiators of actions – give users the sense
that they are in full control of events, earn their trust as you design the system to behave as
they expect.
8. Reduce short-term memory load: interfaces should be as simple as possible with proper
information hierarchy and choosing recognition over recall.