What are the HCI Shneiderman's Principles?

All of the existing products and services are design based on the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Principles in order to be interactive and usable, in other words to be efficient, effective and obtain an enjoyable user experience (Rogers, et al., 2011). The main HCI Principles are five Visibility, Feedback, Constraints, Consistency, and Affordance although Shneiderman enhanced the rules in eight and Nielsen in ten principles. 

Shneiderman’s first rule is the “Strive for consistency”; it is about interfaces to have similar operations to be easier for the user and more familiar while using the application.

The second one is “Enable frequent users to use shortcuts”, which is related to the consistency of interfaces. In other words, to allow the user to be familiar with the shortcuts since they are similar to other existing interfaces’ shortcuts. 
 

Figure 1:  Consistency

Figure 2: Enable frequent users to use shortcuts

The third principle is “Offer informative feedback”; this has to do with the feedback main principle which is about the product/service inform the user that a task is on process and avoid any frustration. 

 

Therefore, “Design dialog to yield closure” is the fourth principle, related to feedback main principle, speaks for the actions must be categorised into three faces beginning, middle, and end in order to be easier and clearer to the user what steps must take into action. 

Figure 3:  Feedback

“Offer simple error handling principle” is the fifth rule which is relative to the constraints main principle, designing the product in such a way to reduce the possible actions that lead to frustrations. 

In addition to the constraints is the sixth rule “Permit easy reversal of actions”, lets the user to be able to undo actions to prevent serious errors and enable the user to feel free exploring unfamiliar functions. 

Figure 4: Constraints

The seventh principle “Support internal locus of control” is comprehended with the visibility and affordance since it gives the charge to the user by making clear and visible how the product operates and what step of actions must be done. 

Figure 5: Affordance

The final one “Reduce short-term memory load” represents the visibility rule of using simple images to be easier for the user to recognise with no need to recall; metaphors is a way of memory recognition since the icons are chosen refer to the words used in everyday life (Rogers, et al., 2011; Shneiderman, 2014).

Figure 6: Visibility

References:

Rogers, Y., Preece, J. & Sharp, H., 2011. Interaction Design: Beyond Human - Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.

Shneiderman, B., 2014. designprinciplesftw. [Online]
Available at: http://www.designprinciplesftw.com/collections/shneidermans-eight-golden-rules-of-interface-design
[Accessed 28 January 2014].