First principles of designing workable interfaces, published in 2003

🗞️ Part of the principles from the article:

Maintain a balance between full user independence and excessive restrictions
Inform the user of the current status of operations to reduce the voltage. This information should always be in sight
Supplement the color indication with additional hints so that people with color blindness can read the information
The controls should clearly tell the user that they can be used, while the elements that work differently should be visually different
Evaluate not only the speed of the interface, but also the time it takes the user to complete the task
Error messages and hints should accurately describe the problem. This will help save time
In the names of menu items and buttons, the keyword must go first. For example: not "Insert Page Break", but "Page Break". First, give the user the opportunity to solve the problem in a simple way. Open additional functions for those who need them
If the application is created for beginners, it should guide the user

Allow to cancel any action. This will allow the user to explore the interface safely

Consider Fitts' law, which states that the accuracy of hitting a target is inversely proportional to the distance to the target and squared to its size. Also, the fastest available targets on any monitor are the four corners of the screen
Use multithreading wherever possible so that the user can continue working while the calculations are going on
Make sure that users don't lose their data if they make a mistake
Workable interfaces are visually clear, forgive mistakes and give their users a sense of manageability. Users briefly look around the scope of opportunities, understand how to achieve their goals and work.

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