Understanding Jakob Nielsen's 10 General Principles in User Interface Design

Jakob Nielsen's 10 General Principles

Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles, also known as heuristics, are widely recognized guidelines for user interface design. These principles are intended to improve the usability of products by making them more user-friendly and intuitive. The principles include:

1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and documentation

Designers and developers often use these design principles to evaluate and improve the user experience of websites, applications, and other interactive systems. They serve as a benchmark for usability testing and provide a framework for discussing and resolving potential design issues.