5 Timeless Usability Principles for Designers

By Julia Salem

January 12, 2012

Numerous UX design principles stay the same because they are deeply integrated into human nature. The most important principles are listed below.

1) Design with a target in mind.
Decide on what the objective is of creating the web site in the first place.

2) The site must answer the 3 most basic questions.
These questions are: Where am I? What can I do here? and Why should I do it?

3) Users don’t want to think, they want to scan.
Design the page so that it’s easy to scan the entire page for the most important information. Chunking content is the most effective way to do this.

4) Who is the ideal prospect/customer?
Who are you trying to use to complete your objectives? Who will be visiting your site?

5) Focus on conventions.
If you don’t focus on conventions, you’ll force your users to become confused and have to think about your website rather than your content.

Source 1st Web Designer