UI Tenets + Traps {Part 2}

I have come to terms with the fact that procrastination will probably be the death of me! Well…that’s if an airplane doesn’t land on my head due to my annoying habit of always having earphones on when I’m just walking about the city and its numerous superhighways. But that is a story for another day.

However, I really hope there is a remedy for this procrastination habit that I have recently acquired because if it continues to escalate I’m going to get in real trouble and not just with my readers! I had promised in the first UI Tenets + Traps post that I will do a follow up on it therefore, albeit late, here is an elaboration on how to use UI Tenets + Traps. 

Remember this?

TENETS describe general attributes of a good interface design

TRAPS describe common design problems that degrade interface goodness. 

When Traps are reduced, the experience improves!

How to use UI Traps

1. Identify the tasks that are most important to your target user
2. Walk through all the ways the user could complete each task in the design. Be sure to consider the entire context of use for the UI.
3. Identify and log any Traps you observe. Many issues have more than one trap, log all that you see.
4. If you can't identify the Trap, consider the Tenet that is getting degraded to narrow down your set of choices.
5. If you have time, cross validate by having another user researcher run through the tasks.
6. Report your results. Use Tenets + Traps to facilitate a good discussion. 

There are a number of Tenets that are necessary in good UI design. A good User Interface needs to be:

1. Understandable
2. Physically Effortless
3. Responsive
4. Efficient
5. Forgiving
6. Discreet
7. Protective
8. Habituating
9. Beautiful

Traps associated with Understandable 

• Uncomprehended Element - A cue critical to achieving a goal is noticed but is misunderstood, and is therefore disregarded. It looks wrong but it is right.
• Invisible Element - No cue is provided to indicate how to achieve a given goal, and the user has insufficient prior learning to overcome its absence.
• Memory Challenge - The user is required to remember information that is easy to forget
• Effectively Invisible Element - A provided cue is not noticed, or is slow to be noticed, because it is outside the user's foveal vision and/or the user doesn't expect to see it.
• Inviting Dead End - A cue is incorrectly judged as a means for achieving a goal. It looks right, but it is wrong.
• Distraction -  Something in the UI appears or changes rapidly, distracting the user from their goal.
• Poor Grouping - A critical relationship between two or more cues is not obvious.
• Ambiguous Feedback - The user does not see, notice, or comprehend needed feedback.

Traps associated with Physically Effortless

• Physical Challenge - The user knows what action is required, but performing the action is physically effortful, difficult or impossible. 
• Accidental Activation - The user's physical actions result in an unintended outcome.

Traps associated with Responsive

• Slow or No Response - The user is prevented from achieving a goal in a timely manner because of poor system performance or because of poor system performance or because the design intentionally prevents the user from advancing or backing out.

Traps associated with Efficient

• Unnecessary Navigation - The amount of actual or perceived UI navigation needed to achieve a goal is too high
• Information Overload - Information presented to the user is comprehensible, but there is too much of it.
• System Amnesia - The system re-prompts the user for information it previously gathered, or it otherwise fails to leverage the user's prior work.
• Bad Prediction - The user must correct or work around the system's incorrect prediction or inaccurate interpretation of their intent.

Trap associated with Forgiving

• Irreversible Action - The user is unable to "undo" an incorrect slept they have taken

Trap associated with Discreet

• Unwanted Disclosure -  The user's behavior or data is made public in a way they did not intend, leading to potential harm, irritation or embarrassment.

Trap associated with Protective

• Data Loss - The user can lose their work through some action or inaction on their part

Traps associated with Habituating

• Ambiguous Home - There is no single place the user can return at any time to begin a new task or get re-oriented. There are multiple and competing "homes."
• Gratuitous Redundancy - The user is presented with multiple cues for the same action at a single level, or a directly nested level, of the UI.
• Variable Outcome -  The consequences of the same user action varies from elsewhere in the UI.
• Inconsistent Element - A cue differs from its visual appearance or placement elsewhere in the UI.

Traps associated with Beautiful

• Unattractive Appearance - The system is aesthetically unpleasing or does not follow its own design language. 

*A cue is a label, icon affordance or prompt.

I think I caused at least one Trap (Information Overload) in writing this post because I wanted to avoid having to split it and be faced with the same challenge of when to continue from where I left in this one. So I decided to just lay it all at once. Hope you understood though! If not, you can always ask. I get so much pleasure in explaining such things to the people who come up to me especially because it means they took their time to read. Much appreciated!

I would like to thank Robin Counts, Senior User Experience Lead at Microsoft for the training she gave and the colourful UI Tenets + Traps cards she left behind that made this post possible. (PS. You can drop by to have a look at them). Also check out this presentation here for better understanding! (Photo credit here)

Thank you for reading!

#HappyDays