I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to come up with some user experience principles that could be applied to any aspect of our business, be it a new software application, business process or client interaction.
This is very much a work in progress, but what I’ve come up with is:
- Usable
- could the system get the job done with less user input?
- are there any user mistakes that the system could prevent?
- Intuitive
- can users start to use the system with little or no difficulty or training?
- do users understand the benefit of using the system
- Well-designed
- do users think the system looks good?
- do users trust the system?
- do the colours, shapes and typography help users find what they want?
- Seamless
- can users start to use the system on one device and continue on another?
The only principle that I’m not happy with is ‘usable’. I feel like it doesn’t obey the principles that I’m trying to define since it’s not particularly intuitive. Applying these principles to themselves is a great way of refining what you’re trying to say.
Clearly these principles are biased towards digital systems at the moment as that’s my main focus but I will be working towards making them media agnostic.