RE: Neilson 10 principles

I couldn't agree more Steve!!

The following is what I sent as a result of a query in the Mobile Accessibility Task Force - I should have copied it to the COGA TF as well!

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Another vote for a unequivocal "yes". This is predominately a simple usability issue, although delivering optimum usability may well be an essential way to assist at least some users with cognitive impairments.
  
It seems that, the designers of modern UIs have largely ignored Jakob Nielsen's 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design ( http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ ).  This was written in 1995 when most of these designer were barely born. Even though the emergence of Web services and major changes of UIs have occurred, these basic principles are still as relevant as they ever were.

The "Visibility of system status" heuristic says "The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time." This implies that active styling for links is absolutely essential.  It does seem that modern flat design environments, where you can no longer rely on a change in the drop-shadow shading around a button to confirm that it has been "pressed", are making things much worse. 

Don't get me started on how most gesture based interfaces are largely breaking Neilsen's "Recognition rather than recall" heuristic. A quick animation to tell you what gestures do the first time you use an app is not a solution (see the paragraph before the iPad screen picture in the "Visible, Intuitive Chrome" in the following article from Raluca Budiu:  http://www.nngroup.com/articles/recognition-and-recall/ ).

Existing usability guidelines and standards reflect Neilsen's heuristics, so W3C may only need to point to these (and to usability standards) rather than detail every single usability-based UI feature that should be implemented.
 
Best regards

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Avila [mailto:jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com] 
Sent: 14 July 2015 13:57
To: Shawn Henry; MATF; wai-eo-editors
Cc: Kevin White
Subject: RE: Question on Active state styling for links

> As Jeanne put it: "Is there a particular value in providing alternative styling for :active links in the mobile environment? That is, when the link is touched or clicked that there is a visible change in appearance."

Yes, as I said in my first response and as Kim reaffirmed there is value in that feedback.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Lee [mailto:steve@opendirective.com] 
Sent: 14 August 2015 18:06
To: public-cognitive-a11y-tf <public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Subject: Neilson 10 principles

It strikes these that most of this 'good design points' clearly impact coga

http://www.expressiveproductdesign.com/nielsens-10-usability-heuristics-user-interface-design/


Steve Lee
OpenDirective http://opendirective.com

Received on Friday, 14 August 2015 17:13:35 UTC