Principle 3 adds the ability to route events from a component to its parent, or from the parent into a component. You can even have one component trigger animations in another component. When creating an event, simply hover over a component or the 'send to parent' button to send the event there. Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life. Ray Dalio, one of the world's most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that helped him create unique results in life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to better achieve their goals. Download a free poster of Jakob's 10 Usability Heuristics at the bottom of this article. #1: Visibility of system status. The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
- Principle 3 Prayer Celebrate Recovery
- Principle 3 In Economics
- Principal 360
- Principle 3 10 Percent
- Principle 3 1040
Summary: Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called 'heuristics' because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.
Download a free poster of Jakob's 10 Usability Heuristics at the bottom of this article.
#1: Visibility of system status
The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
When users know the current system status, they learn the outcome of their prior interactions and determine next steps. Predictable interactions create trust in the product as well as the brand.
Tips
- Communicate clearly to users what the system's state is — no action with consequences to users should be taken without informing them.
- Present feedback to the user as quickly as possible (ideally, immediately).
- Build trust through open and continuous communication.
Learn more
#2: Match between system and the real world
The design should speak the users' language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than internal jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
The way you should design depends very much on your specific users. Terms, concepts, icons, and images that seem perfectly clear to you and your colleagues may be unfamiliar or confusing to your users.
When a design's controls follow real-world conventions and correspond to desired outcomes (called natural mapping), it's easier for users to learn and remember how the interface works. This helps to build an experience that feels intuitive.
Tips
- Ensure users can understand meaning without having to go look up a word's definition.
- Never assume your understanding of words or concepts will match those of your users.
- User research will help you uncover your users' familiar terminology, as well as their mental models around important concepts.
Learn more
#3: User control and freedom
Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked 'emergency exit' to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.
When it's easy for people to back out of a process or undo an action, it fosters a sense of freedom and confidence. Exits allow users to remain in control of the system and avoid getting stuck and feeling frustrated.
Tips
- Support Undo and Redo.
- Show a clear way to exit the current interaction, like a Cancel button.
- Make sure the exit is clearly labeled and discoverable.
Learn more
#4: Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.
Jakob's Law states that people spend most of their time using digital products other than yours. Users' experiences with those other products set their expectations. Failing to maintain consistency may increase the users'cognitive load by forcing them to learn something new.
Tips
- Improve learnability by maintaining both types of consistency: internal and external.
- Maintain consistency within a single product or a family of products (internal consistency).
- Follow establishedindustry conventions (external consistency).
Learn more
#5: Error prevention
Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
There are two types of errors: slips and mistakes. Slips are unconscious errors caused by inattention. Mistakes are conscious errors based on a mismatch between the user's mental model and the design.
Tips
- Prioritize your effort: Prevent high-cost errors first, then little frustrations.
- Avoid slips by providing helpful constraints and good defaults.
- Prevent mistakes by removing memory burdens, supporting undo, and warning your users.
Learn more
#6: Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
Humans have limited short-term memories. Interfaces that promote recognition reduce the amount of cognitive effort required from users.
Tips
- Let people recognize information in the interface, rather than having to remember ('recall') it.
- Offer help in context, instead of giving users a long tutorial to memorize.
- Reduce the information that users have to remember.
Learn more
#7: Flexibility and efficiency of use
Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Flexible processes can be carried out in different ways, so that people can pick whichever method works for them.
Tips
- Provide accelerators like keyboard shortcuts and touch gestures.
- Provide personalization by tailoring content and functionality for individual users.
- Allow for customization, so users can make selections about how they want the product to work.
Learn more
#8: Aesthetic and minimalist design
Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
This heuristic doesn't mean you have to use a flat design — it's about making sure you're keeping the content and visual design focused on the essentials. Ensure that the visual elements of the interface support the user's primary goals.
Tips
- Keep the content and visual design of UI focus on the essentials.
- Don't let unnecessary elements distract users from the information they really need.
- Prioritize the content and features to support primary goals.
Learn more
Principle 3 Prayer Celebrate Recovery
#9: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
These error messages should also be presented with visual treatments that will help users notice and recognize them.
Tips
- Use traditional error message visuals, like bold, red text.
- Tell users what went wrong in language they will understand — avoid technical jargon.
- Offer users a solution, like a shortcut that can solve the error immediately.
Learn more
#10: Help and documentation
It's best if the system doesn't need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.
Help and documentation content should be easy to search and focused on the user's task. Keep it concise, and list concrete steps that need to be carried out.
Tips
- Ensure that the help documentation is easy to search.
- Whenever possible, present the documentation in context right at the moment that the user requires it.
- List concrete steps to be carried out.
Learn more
Note from Jakob
I originally developed the heuristics for heuristic evaluation in collaboration with Rolf Molich in 1990 [Molich and Nielsen 1990; Nielsen and Molich 1990]. Four years later, I refined the heuristics based on a factor analysis of 249 usability problems [Nielsen 1994a] to derive a set of heuristics with maximum explanatory power, resulting in this revised set of heuristics [Nielsen 1994b].
In 2020, we updated this article, adding more explanation, examples, and related links. While we slightly refined the language of the definitions, the 10 heuristics themselves have remained relevant and unchanged since 1994. When something has remained true for 26 years, it will likely apply to future generations of user interfaces as well.
Free 10 Heuristics Poster
Download a free poster of Jakob's 10 Usability Heuristics at the bottom of this article under Downloads. You can download the summary poster in 3 sizes: full poster size, A4, and letter. You can also download the full set of 11 posters (10 Usability Heuristics and the summary poster.
See Also
Examples
Principle 3 In Economics
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Complex Applications — Examples of the heuristics applied to complex and domain-specific software applications.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Virtual Reality — See the heuristics applied to 3D virtual environments.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Video Games — Great examples of the 10 heuristics in highly interactive and highly visual user interfaces that have an entertainment purpose.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Everyday Life(Just for fun)
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.
Jakob's Law states that people spend most of their time using digital products other than yours. Users' experiences with those other products set their expectations. Failing to maintain consistency may increase the users'cognitive load by forcing them to learn something new.
Tips
- Improve learnability by maintaining both types of consistency: internal and external.
- Maintain consistency within a single product or a family of products (internal consistency).
- Follow establishedindustry conventions (external consistency).
Learn more
#5: Error prevention
Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
There are two types of errors: slips and mistakes. Slips are unconscious errors caused by inattention. Mistakes are conscious errors based on a mismatch between the user's mental model and the design.
Tips
- Prioritize your effort: Prevent high-cost errors first, then little frustrations.
- Avoid slips by providing helpful constraints and good defaults.
- Prevent mistakes by removing memory burdens, supporting undo, and warning your users.
Learn more
#6: Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
Humans have limited short-term memories. Interfaces that promote recognition reduce the amount of cognitive effort required from users.
Tips
- Let people recognize information in the interface, rather than having to remember ('recall') it.
- Offer help in context, instead of giving users a long tutorial to memorize.
- Reduce the information that users have to remember.
Learn more
#7: Flexibility and efficiency of use
Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Flexible processes can be carried out in different ways, so that people can pick whichever method works for them.
Tips
- Provide accelerators like keyboard shortcuts and touch gestures.
- Provide personalization by tailoring content and functionality for individual users.
- Allow for customization, so users can make selections about how they want the product to work.
Learn more
#8: Aesthetic and minimalist design
Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
This heuristic doesn't mean you have to use a flat design — it's about making sure you're keeping the content and visual design focused on the essentials. Ensure that the visual elements of the interface support the user's primary goals.
Tips
- Keep the content and visual design of UI focus on the essentials.
- Don't let unnecessary elements distract users from the information they really need.
- Prioritize the content and features to support primary goals.
Learn more
Principle 3 Prayer Celebrate Recovery
#9: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
These error messages should also be presented with visual treatments that will help users notice and recognize them.
Tips
- Use traditional error message visuals, like bold, red text.
- Tell users what went wrong in language they will understand — avoid technical jargon.
- Offer users a solution, like a shortcut that can solve the error immediately.
Learn more
#10: Help and documentation
It's best if the system doesn't need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.
Help and documentation content should be easy to search and focused on the user's task. Keep it concise, and list concrete steps that need to be carried out.
Tips
- Ensure that the help documentation is easy to search.
- Whenever possible, present the documentation in context right at the moment that the user requires it.
- List concrete steps to be carried out.
Learn more
Note from Jakob
I originally developed the heuristics for heuristic evaluation in collaboration with Rolf Molich in 1990 [Molich and Nielsen 1990; Nielsen and Molich 1990]. Four years later, I refined the heuristics based on a factor analysis of 249 usability problems [Nielsen 1994a] to derive a set of heuristics with maximum explanatory power, resulting in this revised set of heuristics [Nielsen 1994b].
In 2020, we updated this article, adding more explanation, examples, and related links. While we slightly refined the language of the definitions, the 10 heuristics themselves have remained relevant and unchanged since 1994. When something has remained true for 26 years, it will likely apply to future generations of user interfaces as well.
Free 10 Heuristics Poster
Download a free poster of Jakob's 10 Usability Heuristics at the bottom of this article under Downloads. You can download the summary poster in 3 sizes: full poster size, A4, and letter. You can also download the full set of 11 posters (10 Usability Heuristics and the summary poster.
See Also
Examples
Principle 3 In Economics
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Complex Applications — Examples of the heuristics applied to complex and domain-specific software applications.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Virtual Reality — See the heuristics applied to 3D virtual environments.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Video Games — Great examples of the 10 heuristics in highly interactive and highly visual user interfaces that have an entertainment purpose.
- 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Everyday Life(Just for fun)
Principal 360
Checklists & Guidelines
- Full set of 2,397 UX design guidelines (across multiple reports).
- Bruce 'Tog' Tognazzini's list of basic principles for interface design. The list is slightly too long for heuristic evaluation but serves as a useful checklist.
References
- Molich, R., and Nielsen, J. (1990). Improving a human-computer dialogue, Communications of the ACM 33, 3 (March), 338-348.
- Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. (1990). Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces, Proc. ACM CHI'90 Conf. (Seattle, WA, 1-5 April), 249-256.
- Nielsen, J. (1994a). Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. Proc. ACM CHI'94 Conf. (Boston, MA, April 24-28), 152-158.
- Nielsen, J. (1994b). Heuristic evaluation. In Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L. (Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
Many people ask if they can use these heuristics in their own work. Yes, but please credit Jakob Nielsen and provide the address for this page [nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics] or cite the paper above [Nielsen 1994a]. If you want to print copies of this page or reproduce the content online, however, please see our copyright info for details. Copyright © by Jakob Nielsen.ISSN 1548-5552
Downloads
Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
What does it mean?
The tenth principle against corruption was adopted in 2004 and commits UN Global Compact participants not only to avoid bribery, extortion and other forms of corruption, but also to proactively develop policies and concrete programmes to address corruption internally and within their supply chains. Companies are also challenged to work collectively and join civil society, the United Nations and governments to realize a more transparent global economy.
With the entry into force of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2005, an important global tool to fight corruption was introduced. The UNCAC is the underlying legal instrument for the 10th Principle. Corruption can take many forms that vary in degree from the minor use of influence to institutionalized bribery. Transparency International's definition of corruption is 'the abuse of entrusted power for private gain'. This can mean not only financial gain but also non-financial advantages.
The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises define extortion in the following way: 'The solicitation of bribes is the act of asking or enticing another to commit bribery. It becomes extortion when this demand is accompanied by threats that endanger the personal integrity or the life of the private actors involved.'
Transparency International's Business Principles for Countering Bribery define bribery in the following way: 'Bribery: An offer or receipt of any gift, loan, fee, reward or other advantage to or from any person as an inducement to do something which is dishonest, illegal or a breach of trust, in the conduct of the enterprise's business.'
Principle 3 10 Percent
Why should companies care?
There are many reasons why the elimination of corruption has become a priority within the business community. Confidence and trust in business among investors, customers, employees and the public have been eroded by recent waves of business ethics scandals around the globe. Companies are learning the hard way that they can be held responsible for not paying enough attention to the actions of their employees, associated companies, business partners and agents.
The rapid development of rules of corporate governance around the world is also prompting companies to focus on anti-corruption measures as part of their mechanisms to express corporate sustainability and to protect their reputations and the interests of their stakeholders. Their anti-corruption systems are increasingly being extended to a range of ethics and integrity issues, and a growing number of investment managers are looking to these systems as evidence that the companies undertake good and well-managed business practice.
Businesses face high ethical and business risks and potential costs when they fail to effectively combat corruption in all its forms. All companies, large and small, are vulnerable to corruption, and the potential for damage is considerable. Business can face:
- legal risks: not only are most forms of corruption illegal where they occur but it is also increasingly becoming illegal in a company's home country to engage in corrupt practices in another country;
- Reputational risks: companies whose policies and practices fail to meet high ethical standards, or that take a relaxed attitude toward compliance with laws, are exposed to serious reputational risks. Often it is enough to be accused of malpractice for a company's reputation to be damaged even if a court subsequently determines the contrary;
- Financial costs: there is clear evidence that many countries lose close to $1 trillion due to fraud, corruption and shady business transactions and in certain cases, corruption can cost a country up to 17% of its GDP, according to the UN Development Programme in 2014. This undermines business performance and diverts public resources from legitimate sustainable development;
- Erosion of internal trust and confidenceas unethical behaviour damages staff loyalty to the company as well as the overall ethical culture of the company.
What can companies do?
The UN Global Compact suggests that participants consider the following three elements when fighting corruption and implementing the 10th principle:
Principle 3 1040
- Internal: As a first and basic step, introduce anti-corruption policies and programmes within their organizations and their business operations;
- External: Report on the work against corruption in the annual Communication on Progress; and share experiences and best practices through the submission of examples and case stories;
- Collective Action: Join forces with industry peers and with other stakeholders to scale up anti-corruption efforts, level the playing field and create fair competition for all. Companies can use the B20 Collective Action Hub to create a company profile, propose projects, find partners and on-going projects as well as resources on anti-corruption collective action;
- Sign the 'Anti-corruption Call to Action', which is a call from Business to Governments to address corruption and foster effective governance for a sustainable and inclusive global economy. Your company's participation in this Call to Action underscores your continued efforts to integrate anti-corruption into your strategies and operations. Learn more about the Call to Action and how to sign.
