Chapter 6

Design rules
 Overview
Designing for maximum usability is the goal of
interactive systems design.
Abstract principles offer a way of understanding
usability in a more general sense, especially if we
can express them within some coherent catalog.
Design rules in the form of standards and
guidelines provide direction for design, in both
general and more concrete terms, in order to
enhance the interactive properties of the system.
The essential characteristics of good design are often
summarized through ‘golden rules’ or heuristics.
Design patterns provide a potentially generative
approach to capturing and reusing design
knowledge.
 TYPES OF DESIGN RULES
principles
abstract design rules
low authority
high generality
standards
specific design rules Guidelines

increasing generality
increasing generality
high authority
limited application
guidelines Standards

lower authority
more general application increasing authority
increasing authority
 Design rule
Design rules for interactive systems can be supported
by psychological, cognitive, ergonomic, sociological,
economic or computational theory, which may or may
not have roots in empirical evidence.
Designers do not always have the relevant background
in psychology, cognitive science, ergonomics,
sociology, business or computer science necessary to
understand the consequences of those theories in the
instance of the design they are creating.
The design rules are used to apply the theory in
practice.
Often a set of design rules will be in conflict with each
other, meaning that strict adherence to all of them is
impossible.
 Principles to support usability
Learnability
Learnability concerns the features of the
interactive system that allow novice users
to understand how to use it initially and then
how to attain a maximal level of
performance.
Flexibility
the multiplicity of ways the user and
system exchange information
Robustness
the level of support provided the user in
determining successful achievement and
assessment of goal-directed behaviour
Learnability
Flexibility
Robustness
 Principles of learnability
Predictability
determining effect of future actions based on
past interaction history
operation visibility

Synthesizability
assessing the effect of past actions
immediate vs. eventual honesty
 Principles of learnability (ctd)
Familiarity
how prior knowledge applies to new system
guessability; affordance

Generalizability
extending specific interaction knowledge to
new situations

Consistency
likeness in input/output behaviour arising
from similar situations or task objectives
 Principles of flexibility
Dialogue initiative
freedom from system imposed constraints
on input dialogue
system vs. user pre-emptiveness

Multithreading
ability of system to support user interaction
for more than one task at a time
concurrent vs. interleaving; multimodality

Task migratability
passing responsibility for task execution
between user and system
 Principles of flexibility (ctd)
Substitutivity
allowing equivalent values of input and
output to be substituted for each other
representation multiplicity; equal
opportunity

Customizability
modifiability of the user interface by user
(adaptability) or system (adaptivity)
 Principles of robustness
Observability
ability of user to evaluate the internal state
of the system from its perceivable
representation
browsability; defaults; reachability;
persistence; operation visibility

Recoverability
ability of user to take corrective action
once an error has been recognized
reachability; forward/backward recovery;
commensurate effort
Principles of robustness (ctd)
Responsiveness
how the user perceives the rate of
communication with the system
Stability

Task conformance
degree to which system services support all
of the user's tasks
task completeness; task adequacy
 STANDARDS
set by national or international bodies to ensure
compliance with a set of design rules by a large
community.
Standards can apply specifically to either the hardware
or the software used to build the interactive system.

Standards for hardware are based on an understanding

of physiology or ergonomics/human factors, the results
of which are relatively well known, fixed and readily
adaptable to design of the hardware.
software standards are based on theories from
psychology or cognitive science, which are less well
formed, still evolving and not very easy to interpret in
the language of software design.
Underlying theory
Consequently, standards for hardware can
directly relate to a hardware specification and
still reflect the underlying theory, whereas
software standards would have to be more
vaguely worded.
Change Hardware is more difficult and
expensive to change than software, which is
usually designed to be very flexible.
Consequently, requirements changes for
hardware do not occur as frequently as for
software. Since standards are also relatively
stable, they are more suitable for hardware
than software.
 Standard organizations
 British Standards Institution (BSI) or the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) or a national
military agency, has had standards for hardware in
place before any for software.
The international standard ISO 9241, entitled
Ergonomic Requirements for Office Work
with Visual Display Terminals (VDT)s, has
17 parts. Seven of these are concerned with
hardware issues – requirements for visual
display, keyboard layout, workstation
layout, environment, display with
reflections, display colors and non-
keyboard input devices. Seven parts are
devoted to software issues – general dialog
ISO standard 9241
One component of the ISO standard 9241,
pertaining to usability specification, applies
equally to both hardware and software design.
In the beginning of that document, the following
definition of usability is given:
Usability The effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction with which specified users achieve
specified goals in particular environments.
Effectiveness The accuracy and completeness
with which specified users can achieve specified
goals in particular environments.
Efficiency The resources expended in relation
to the accuracy and completeness of goals
achieved.
 Standards
The strength of a standard lies in its ability to force
large communities to abide – the so-called authority.

Some software products become de facto standards

long before any formal standards document is
published (for example, the X windowing system).

There is a much longer history of standards in safety-

critical domains, such as nuclear power plants or
aircraft design, where the consequences of poor
design outweigh the expense of principled design. It is
only as the perceived costs of unusable software in
less safety-critical domains have become less
acceptable that there has been a greater effort in
developing standards for promoting usability.
 GUIDELINES
the majority of design rules for interactive
systems are suggestive and more general
guidelines.
The more specific the guideline, the more
suited it is to detailed design.
The guidelines can also be automated to
some extent, providing a direct means for
translating detailed design specifications into
actual implementation.
 Golden rules and heuristics
“Broad brush” design rules
Useful check list for good design
Better design using these than using
nothing!
Different collections e.g.
Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules
Norman’s 7 Principles
Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules of
Interface Design
1. Strive for consistency in action sequences,
layout, terminology, command use and so on.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts, such
as abbreviations, special key sequences and
macros, to perform regular, familiar actions
more quickly.
3. Offer informative feedback for every user
action, at a level appropriate to the
magnitude of the action.
4. Design dialogs to yield closure so that the
user knows when they have completed a
task.
 Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules of
Interface Design
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling so
that, ideally, users are prevented from making
mistakes and, if they do, they are offered clear and
informative instructions to enable them to recover.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions in order to relieve
anxiety and encourage exploration, since the user
knows that he can always return to the previous state.
7. Support internal locus of control so that the user is
in control of the system, which responds to his
actions.
8. Reduce short-term memory load by keeping
displays simple, consolidating multiple page displays
and providing time for learning action sequences.
 Norman’s Seven Principles for
Design
1. Discoverability:
Users should easily understand what actions are possible.
2. Feedback:
Provide clear indications of the result of user actions.
3. Conceptual Model:
Ensure the interface represents a mental model that users can
understand.
4. Affordances:
Design elements should suggest their usage (e.g., buttons that
look clickable).
5. Signifiers:
Add visual cues to guide user actions (e.g., arrows for navigation).
6. Mapping:
Maintain a clear relationship between controls and their effects.
7. Constraints:
Limit user actions to prevent errors.
 Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics
1. Visibility of system status:
Keep users informed with real-time feedback.
2. Match between system and the real world:
Use familiar language and conventions.
3. User control and freedom:
Provide "undo" and "redo" options for user actions.
4. Consistency and standards:
Follow established design standards to reduce confusion.
5. Error prevention:
Design interfaces that minimize the risk of errors.
6. Recognition rather than recall:
Display options and information clearly to reduce reliance on memory.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use:
Allow customization and shortcuts for advanced users.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design:
Avoid unnecessary elements that distract from key functions.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors:
Use plain language to describe errors and suggest solutions.
10. Help and documentation:
Provide easily accessible help and guidance.
 The Three Principles of
Usability
1.Effectiveness:
The system should enable users to achieve
their goals accurately.
2.Efficiency:
Users should be able to perform tasks with
minimal effort.
3.Satisfaction:
The interaction should be pleasant and free of
frustration.
Examples of Applying Design
Rules in HCI

• ATM Interface:
• Consistent layout across different machines
(Shneiderman’s Rule #1).
• Provide immediate feedback for actions like
depositing cash (Norman’s Feedback).
• Offer clear error messages for invalid PIN entries
(Nielsen’s Error Prevention).
• E-Commerce Website:
• Use clear buttons for "Add to Cart" (Norman’s
Affordances).
• Allow users to filter and sort products (Nielsen’s
Flexibility and Efficiency).
• Include a progress bar during checkout
(Shneiderman’s Design Dialogs).
 HCI design patterns
An approach to reusing knowledge about
successful design solutions
Originated in architecture: Alexander
A pattern is an invariant solution to a
recurrent problem within a specific context.
Examples
Light on Two Sides of Every Room
(architecture)
Go back to a safe place (HCI)
Patterns do not exist in isolation but are
linked to other patterns in languages which
enable complete designs to be generated
 HCI design patterns (cont.)
Characteristics of patterns
capture design practice not theory
capture the essential common properties of
good examples of design
represent design knowledge at varying levels:
social, organisational, conceptual, detailed
embody values and can express what is
humane in interface design
are intuitive and readable and can therefore
be used for communication between all
stakeholders
a pattern language should be generative and
assist in the development of complete designs.
 Summary
Principles for usability
repeatable design for usability relies on
maximizing benefit of one good design by
abstracting out the general properties which
can direct purposeful design
The success of designing for usability
requires both creative insight (new
paradigms) and purposeful principled
practice

Using design rules

standards and guidelines to direct design
activity