What Makes a Great User Experience?

It’s been almost 25 years since Jakob Nielsen published his near-legendary 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. The heuristics were designed to be broad rules of thumb, open to interpretation, rather than a set of guidelines; however, they’ve had a profound impact on the way interactive experiences have been designed since they were published in the 1990s.

As multi-billion dollar industries have come to rely on user interfaces to bridge the gap between human and device, the extent to which Nielsen’s heuristics still hold water is remarkable. They were conceived prior to mass adoption of the Internet, and long before the acronyms UI or UX started appearing on the resumés of digital designers.

However, the world has changed in the last two decades. The number of technology platforms and devices, digital interfaces and interactions, noise and choice in people’s lives have all increased, with a particularly rapid escalation in the last 10 years.

So while many of Nielsen’s heuristics are still valid, the context in which they're being applied has changed dramatically. What’s more, in parallel - thanks in no small part to the heuristics themselves - users’ expectations of technology have matured.

To help answer the question “what makes a great user experience”, we’ve developed our own usability heuristics (see below), which build on the past while reflecting the behaviours and expectations of modern users.

Note: the heuristics below are designed to be used alongside our business considerations and technology considerations to provide a three-way framework for assessing a software project.

1. Consistency

Match the conscious and subconscious expectations of the user.

• Ensure consistency and leverage familiarity with the platform you’re designing for. This will reduce friction and increase the productivity of the user.
• Ensure consistency within the experience you’re creating. For example, design language, user interactions and interface elements should be consistent.
• Ensure consistency with the most prevalent “mental models”. Where possible, help users better understand new concepts by leveraging metaphors for familiar experiences.

2. Communication

Use different forms of communication appropriately.

• User interactions should be acknowledged with perceptible feedback in real-time; however low-level system status doesn’t need to be communicated, it should be implied.
• Passively communicate information that is frequently accessed but intermittently important by making it easily accessible; the user can engage with it when they choose.
• Proactive communication should be concise, unambiguous, and initiated only when: a) intermittently-important information becomes critical, or b) a one-off event occurs that might need the user’s attention or they’ve elected to be notified about.
• UI elements should accurately and concisely denote the action or behaviour you are trying to elicit. If an action is required, the user’s options should be clearly indicated.

3. Flexibility

Empower the user to work in a way that suits them.

• Design for everyone in your audience: users may have varying levels of expertise and/or cognitive and/or physical ability. Anticipate and support usage in different environments.
• Users should be able to initiate interactions based on a wide variety of contextual intentions. Support non-linear workflows.
• Forgive human error. Users should be able to experiment, change their minds and make mistakes without breaking anything.