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UX Crash Course: Usability Heuristics

Kathryn Grayson Nanz on March 05, 2024

When we’re assessing the user experience of a website or application, what exactly are we looking for? What makes a site especially usable (or espe...
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Shedrick Williams

This was a very valuable for me. I absolutely HATE most things frontend so boiling down some really high value principles I can use when I absolutely have to deal with UI/UX is very helpful for me. Thank you.

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Chuck Reeves

That increases a user’s cognitive load, or the amount of effort and energy that it takes to complete a task.

The WCAG is adding cognitive metrics as part of Web accessibility. It is more important that we start focusing on how to reduce load. One thing that bothers me so much about having ADHD is modal pop-ups, especially when I don't do anything to activate them. I was using an app that kept having modals open as part of the tutorial all the time. All I wanted to do was use the damn app, and If I needed help, I could click on the help button. If I visit a site that has a modal pop-up at any point asking me to subscribe, I will boycott and never return.

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Michael Tharrington

So much great advice in here! Thanks for sharing and offering up your thoughts on these Usability Heuristics, Kathryn. 🙌

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Schemetastic (Rodrigo)

I enjoyed this article! Been leaning about UI recently, and this UX post complements so well what I'd been learning.

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Rachel Lawson

Thank you for this! Super interesting read. I’ll definitely be referring back to this post when I need a refresher on these concepts.

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João Angelo

Hi Kathryn Grayson Nanz,
Your tips are very useful
Thanks for sharing

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Pieces 🌟

This is a great article 🔥

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András Tóth

As a frontend developer I must say this is a very good list and opens my eyes for looking out for these specific things.
I also think that some of the points apply to code and codebases: for example "Recognition Rather Than Recall" is a hallmark for quality code where you can open up any file and recognize what it does without the need to ask a colleague.