Behavioral Design: System and Real World Alignment
What are Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics? After analysing usability research, UX expert Jakob Nielsen created suggestions for user interface design that increase product usability and user experience.
The Usability Heuristics use high-level principles to identify usability issues in a design. They’re timeless, even in an ever-changing digital context, as they can be applied across any interface or design style. Nielsen's standards have become a cornerstone of UX and UI design, introduced early in design education and repeatedly revisited throughout a designer's career.
The Basic Idea
There probably wouldn’t be any round-shaped soda bottles if people had paws instead of normal hands with fingers that can clench! But designers understand how human arms and digits work, so they create beverage bottles that consumers can comfortably hold by hand without thinking about it. That’s one example of system and real world alignment in behavioral design.
According to the usability heuristic, a system has optimal user interactions when it follows people’s reality, thinking, and natural way of doing things. It incorporates lexicon that everybody speaks and is comfortable with, rather than technical jargon that may escape users’ attention or require further research to understand. Incorporating relevant socio-cultural concepts in the design enhances users’ familiarity with the system, easing uncertainties associated with its features or general application.
