5 Key UX Design Principles - How to Make Products User Friendly

Don Norman, in his book “the design of everyday things” mentions 5 key design principles. Which we can apply to SaaS UX product design.

These are: Affordance, Signifiers, Mapping, Feedback, Conceptual Model

Affordance - Affordances show how a user interacts with a product. In Instagram, the user can like, share, comment, DM with people. He can also post photos, stories & reels and enable other users to like, share & comment on.

Signifiers - Signifiers are features aka the buttons that enable users to trigger/avail the affordances. Instagram’s like, comment, DM features are all close at hand on the screen. So is the “make new post / story”. The core affordances and the corresponding buttons are always visible to the user so he can participate in engaging with the core product.

Mapping - Mapping is the spatial distribution between one signifier and the context it is showed in. The more context a signifier is in, the higher the probability of the user engaging with the signifier and the affordance. In Instagram’s example, the “make a story” signifier is in the top part of the screen where other stories are shown - the button is in context so it makes sense for the user to hit start and start a story.

Feedback - Immediate feedback and tight closing of the loop from engagement to completion is key. In Instagram’s example, when users post a story, they automatically get notified that their story is posted. And that they can now go and check it out. The affordance is obtained by the user and they have a receipt to show for it.

Conceptual model - This is slightly more meta but here the idea is that users prefer products that look or feel similar to what they’re already used to. Instagram’s scrolling feature is similar to that of Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media products. There’s no abrupt learning curve involved - the user is already familiar with products in the market.

And there you have it - the 5 key UX product design principles.

Ps: I've made this essay so it fits into a mobile screenshot - I've made this "screenshot essay" here that you can download to your phone and read on the go if that's your jam!