10 Heuristics for User Interface Design
`https://web.archive.org/web/20100729184138/http:/www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html[7/16/2025 11:29:09 PM]
`useit.com
` Papers and Essays
` Heuristic Evaluation
` List of Heuristics
`Ten Usability Heuristics
`by Jakob Nielsen
`These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the
`nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.
`Visibility of system status
`The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within
`reasonable time.
`Match between system and the real world
`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.
`User control and freedom
`Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the
`unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
`Consistency and standards
`Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow
`platform conventions.
`Error prevention
`Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first
`place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option
`before they commit to the action.
`Recognition rather than recall
`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.
`Flexibility and efficiency of use
`Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the
`system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
`Aesthetic and minimalist design
`Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in
`a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
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`APPLE 1054
`Apple v. Smith Interface
`IPR2024-01088
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`10 Heuristics for User Interface Design
`https://web.archive.org/web/20100729184138/http:/www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html[7/16/2025 11:29:09 PM]
`Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
`Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and
`constructively suggest a solution.
`Help and documentation
`Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and
`documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be
`carried out, and not be too large.
`I originally developed the heuristics for heuristic evaluation
` in collaboration with Rolf Molich in 1990 [Molich and
`Nielsen 1990; Nielsen and Molich 1990]. I since refined the heuristics based on a factor analysis of 249 usability
`problems [Nielsen 1994a] to derive a set of heuristics with maximum explanatory power, resulting in this revised set of
`heuristics [Nielsen 1994b].
`Updated Findings
`I'll present my newest usability guidelines in the tutorial on Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability at the Usability
`Week 2009 conference in Las Vegas and Berlin.
`The conference also includes a full-day course on other methods beyond user testing.
`See Also:
`Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini's list of basic principles for interface design. The list is slightly too long for heuristic
`evaluation but serves as a useful checklist.
`Examples of the 10 heuristics in Web applications.
`The 10 usability heuristics applied to everyday life (just for fun).
`Full set of 2,397 usability guidelines (across multiple reports).
`References
`Molich, R., and Nielsen, J. (1990). Improving a human-computer dialogue, Communications of the ACM 33, 3
`(March), 338-348.
`Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. (1990). Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces, Proc. ACM CHI'90 Conf. (Seattle, WA,
`1-5 April), 249-256.
`Nielsen, J. (1994a). Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. Proc. ACM CHI'94 Conf. (Boston,
`MA, April 24-28), 152-158.
`Nielsen, J. (1994b). Heuristic evaluation. In Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L. (Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods,
`John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
`Copyright © 2005 by Jakob Nielsen. ISSN 1548-5552
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