Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen
mean errors simplicity
Developing fewer features allows you to conserve development resources and spend more time refining those features that users really need. Fewer features mean fewer things to confuse users, less risk of user errors, less description and documentation, and therefore simpler Help content. Removing any one feature automatically increases the usability of the remaining ones.
real order phrases
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
apples copying window
Windows '98 is so similar to Windows '95 because Apple hasn't invented anything worth copying since 1995.
feedback should appropriate
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
pay attention user-experience
...pay attention to what users do, not what they say.
attitude years people
The usability tests we have conducted during the last year have shown an increasing reluctance among users to accept innovations in Web design. The prevailing attitude is to request designs that are similar to everything else people see on the Web.
support design site
If your users have many questions, it's a failure of your primary site design. It becomes not so much customer support, as much as customer complaints,
reality site
The best Web sites are better than Reality.
memories use information
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
technology tables poor
At most project meetings, everyone has a seat at the table except the poor victims who will have to operate the technology.
empowering world environment
The web is the ultimate customer-empowering environment. He or she who clicks the mouse gets to decide everything. It is so easy to go elsewhere; all the competitors in the world are but a mouseclick away.
errors progressive used
Progressive disclosure defers advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, making applications easier to learn and less error-prone.
technology simple impact
Clear content, simple navigation and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.
engineering years cost
Inadequate use of usability engineering methods in software development projects have been estimated to cost the US economy about $30 billion per year in lost productivity.