Tuesday, November 04, 2003
It's interesting to note that Neilsen's 10 usability heuristics contain one item on using plain simple language, and yet the style that his heuristics in is hardly a model of clarity. Check out the BECTA report for a rewording of these in a clearer manner.
Note that there is a difference between heuristics and guidelines - heuristics are principles and rules of thumb that govern the overall approach - guidelines are more specific rules for designing things, and are often platform or task-specific. If you review say the apple usability guidelines, you can see the Neilsen heuristics echoed in them, but they detail exactly what things should look like and how they should behave.
Note that there is a difference between heuristics and guidelines - heuristics are principles and rules of thumb that govern the overall approach - guidelines are more specific rules for designing things, and are often platform or task-specific. If you review say the apple usability guidelines, you can see the Neilsen heuristics echoed in them, but they detail exactly what things should look like and how they should behave.
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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