Organize information

The often incomplete idea a person forms of how something works, and uses to predict what will happen when they act.

Avoid

Assuming people understand the system the way the team does.

A method in which people group and name cards with content items to reveal how they mentally organize information.

Output

The groups and labels people use to organize the content

Avoid

Using cards with technical names only the team understands.

Organizes, labels and connects the content of a website, an app or a service so people find what they are looking for and understand where they are.

When to use it

Test your menu labels with people before building it.

Avoid

Copying the company’s org chart into the menu.

Designs what helps people orient themselves and find their way in a place: signs, maps, architecture, sounds, and textures.

When to use it

Place information at the points where people have to decide.

Avoid

Filling the place with signs that compete with each other.

Rules by which perception groups what we see: things that are close, look alike, follow the same line or share an outline are seen as a whole.

Avoid

Spacing everything evenly, related or not, or placing unrelated things close together.

A structure of columns, modules, and margins used as a base to place text and images in an orderly, consistent way across several pages or screens.

Avoid

Breaking the grid for no reason in each piece.

The design and setting of type: choosing typefaces, sizes, spacing, and measures so that a text reads well and has the right tone.

When to use it

Start with the body text: size, line spacing, and line length.

Avoid

Using many typefaces in the same piece.

Represents data with shapes, positions, and colors so they can be compared, explored, and understood.

When to use it

To compare quantities, use bars aligned on a common axis.

Avoid

Pie charts with many similar slices.

Plans the creation, publication and maintenance of useful, usable content.

When to use it

Before creating content, decide who will maintain it.

Avoid

Measuring success by the amount of content published.

Chooses the words of an interface (headings, buttons, form fields, and error messages) so the person understands and does what they came to do.

When to use it

Write buttons with the verb of what will happen: “Send payment,” not “OK.”

Avoid

Error messages that blame the person or do not say how to fix the problem.

A method in which real people try to do specific tasks with a product while being observed, to find out where they get stuck and why.

Output

A list of usability problems, with where they appear and why

Avoid

Asking “do you like it?”: measure what people do, not what they think.