So, I’ve been working on my UX notes for the new unit, and as part of this I’ve been collating some principles. As it’s Christmas, I’m adding those for usability just in case they may be of interest.

You will notice in the table below that the left column describes the principle, guideline, or rule (these are sometimes used interchangeably between the different experts); while on the right side the experts are listed along with a footnote pointing to the text from which the principle is derived. In collating these principles I have not followed slavishly the nomenclature proposed by each author, but have instead placed them in categories which I believe have the same conceptual value even if the naming of that principle does not follow that in the source it is derived from.

1. B. Shneiderman and C. Plaisant. Designing the user interface: strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Addison- Wesley, Boston, 5th ed edition, 2010.
2. D. C. Smith, C. Irby, R. Kimball, B. Verplank, and E. Harslem. Designing the star user interface. BYTE, 7(4):242-282, 1982.
3. D. A. Norman. The design of everyday things. Basic Books, New York, 1st basic paperback edition, 1988.
4. J. Nielsen. Usability engineering. Academic Press, Boston, 1993. Nielsen also lists Aesthetic and minimalist design.
5. ISO/TR 9241-110:2006. Ergonomics of human-system interaction – part 110: Dialogue principles. TC/SC: TC 159/SC 4 ICS 13.180, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland, 2006.
   A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd, and R. Beale. Human-computer interaction. Prentice Hall Europe, London, 2nd ed edition, 1998. Dix, Finally, Abowd & Beale describe ‘Learnability’ as: Predictability, Synthesizablity, Familiarity, Generalizabilty, and Consistency. ‘Flexibility’ as: Dialog initiative, Multi-threading, Task migratabilty, Subsitutivity, and Customizability. ‘Robustness’ as: Observability, Recoverability, Responsiveness, and Task conformance.
6. J. Raskin. The humane interface: new directions for designing interactive systems. Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass., 2000.
7. H. Sharp, Y. Rogers, and J. Preece. Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. Wiley, Chichester, 2nd ed edition, 2007. Preece, Rogers and Sharp also lists Satisfying, Enjoyable, Fun, Entertaining, Helpful, Motivating, Aesthetic, Supports creativity, Rewarding, and Emotionally fulfilling.
8. F. P. Brooks. The mythical man-month: essays on software engineering. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Reading, Mass., anniversary ed edition, 1995.