Jakob Nielsen has been called a Guru by the New York Times, WebReference.com calls him a Czar and yet most Internet users, let alone most Internet design teams have no idea who this titan of interface design is.

As a web designer who started created sites way back before recorded time began (1996) I rarely gave much thought to the methods behind the madness until stumbling upon Dr. Neilsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics while preparing for an Interface Design class I was about to teach. What I discovered literally changed the way I approached graphic design, the internet and made me re-evaluate how I built even the simplest website from then on.

In a nutshell, Neilsen’s Heuristics is a collection of experience driven knowledge or observations which when put together create a road map for creating intuitive interfaces. Seemingly trivial independently, the ten heuristics add up to become the most astounding checklist ever assembled. You’ll be astounded how many websites fail to meet this simple list and more alarmingly, how many web designers allow small to medium sized businesses to break these simple ten rules.

What I did years ago was take Dr. Neilsen’s list and create my own Web Heuristics based off his Ten Usability Heuristics, as a guideline to creating great websites and today, this list acts as Getaway Graphics core principals of web design.

Site Situation

Regardless of how a web user reaches a particular page, users should have an immediate understanding of what page they are on, which section that page belongs to and what they should be expected to do next.

Site Status

When users interact with the website, reasonable feedback should be given to indicate their status. For example, when a form is completed, users should be immediately told the form is being processed and the results of the action.

Real World Representation

We all know the Internet isn’t the real world but websites should act in accordance to the real world. Words, phrases and concepts that are familiar to visitors should be carried throughout the website and be consistent with the users real world knowledge of those concepts.

User Freedom

Visitors must be capable of moving around a website freely and able to make mistakes, reverse those mistakes and even abandon mistakes without interference from the website.

Consistency and Standards

Words, colors, design elements and phrases used throughout a website need to mean the same thing regardless of where those elements are used. Headings must always look like headings, text like text and most importantly words or phrases used on the website must remain consistent throughout.

Error Prevention

There’s no room for errors on a website and no excuse for exposing your prospective customers to them. If your website has an error, it’s not the users responsibility to work around it, it’s your duty to fix it.

Recognition Over Recall

Vistor’s can not be asked to remember information, it’s up to us to minimize the strain on our visitors memory by providing easy to follow links and providing appropriate solutions from one screen to another. Instructions on how to recover information should be readily available.

Flexible, Efficient Operation

Providing users with shortcuts to commonly accessed elements, sitemaps, search engines and methods for both novice and expert users to interact with a website is key for returning visitors.

Minimalist Design

Effective Interface Design isn’t about bells and whistles. It’s about making it possible for users to achieve goals, every extra unit of information displayed to a user can interfere with that objective and diminishes your ability to ensure the site is used successfully

Error Recovery

If errors are going to occur (this is the internet after all), help your visitors recover with plain, everyday language and suggest a solution. This is a fairly simple process often overlooked by time crunched web developers but it’s really the most important of Dr. Neilsen’s rules.

Help

Help should be easy to find and offered in the most effective way possible. This should always include sitemaps, search engines and mouseover help when ever possible

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