Usability Principles
What is it?
12 industry-standard usability principles are used to formally evaluate the usability of systems, applications, and interfaces.
Why does it matter?
Consistent principles allow us to better align to improved standards for user experience.
When would you use these?
The usability principles are useful during the design phase and during the evaluation of designs or production interfaces. By adhering to these principles, you will ensure that your experience will meet usability standards. Having an expert user experience designer conduct a usability review of your interface, you can identify usability issues before rolling it out to users or to add to your enhancements backlog.
What is included?
Below are the usability principles we use to evaluate systems, applications, and interfaces.

# | Principle | Description | Examples |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
User Control and Freedom (including customization, shortcuts, and precision) |
The interface will allow the user to perceive that they are in control and will allow appropriate control. |
|
2 |
Recognition vs. Recall(including interpretation) |
Reduce short-term memory load by assisting users and providing needed information through the interface. |
|
3 |
Mental Model |
The interface/system should match mental models that the user holds of the real world. |
|
4 |
Clarity |
The interface will communicate as clearly and as efficiently as possible with comprehensible, precise, and unambiguous communication. Evident differentiation between items. Clear context. |
|
5 |
Simplicity & Aesthetic Integrity |
The interface will present elements simply. |
|
6 |
Accuracy |
The interface will be free from errors. |
|
7 |
Error Handling & Prevention |
The system will prevent errors as much as possible, and provide simple error handling in meaningful terms. |
|
8 |
Consistency & Predictability |
Strive for consistency across the interface and system. |
|
9 |
User Support |
The interface will provide additional assistance as needed or requested. |
|
10 |
Forgiveness |
The system will permit easy reversal of actions. |
|
11 |
Feedback |
The interface will offer informative feedback to the user. |
|
12 |
Accessibility Compliant |
The interface will meet AA WCAG level 2 accessibility compliance. |
|
Going further
If you are interested in learning more about these principles or having us conduct an expert usability review, please contact us.