CARMEL UX Guidelines & Criteria

Each guideline has been operationalized to include 5 key criteria for a multi-faceted evaluation.

  1. Consistency

    1. Style guides
      The design follows branding or style guides that dictate the use of logos, color, and typography.
    2. Design systems
      The design follows a cohesive set of human interface guidelines or design patterns.
    3. Naming conventions
      Naming conventions are consistent across pages and UI elements.
    4. Look & feel
      Layouts and page elements have a cohesive look and feel.
    5. Interactions
      Similar interactions (e.g. transitions, widget states) behave consistently.

  2. Accessibility

    1. Font size
      The design meets minimum font size legibility guidelines.
    2. Contrast
      The design meets guidelines for minimum contrast between text and background.
    3. Double coding
      Visual information is ‘double-coded’ for accessibility by users with color blindness or other visual impairments.
    4. Target size
      The design meets guidelines for minimum target size for mouse and touch targets.
    5. Screen Readers
      The design meets W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for users of screen readers.

  3. Recovery

    1. Confirmation dialogs
      Destructive or high-impact actions require confirmation.
    2. Undo functions
      Undo functions prevent major data loss and unintended consequences.
    3. Error messages
      Error messages include instructions for recovery.
    4. Version control
      Version control, history or archive functions are built into data intensive or collaborative workflows.
    5. System recovery
      The system mitigates impact of catastrophic errors, crashes, and network outages.

  4. Memory

    1. Limited choices
      Lists of critical choices (menu options, navigation categories) are visible in a single view, or limited to <10 items.
    2. Automatic calculations
      The system ‘does the math’ for the user.
    3. Feedback
      Microcopy and microinteractions provide ongoing feedback to the user.
    4. Chunking and masking
      Long strings of text or numbers (security codes, phone numbers) are visually chunked or masked.
    5. Security practices
      Security systems reduce need for spontaneous recall by utilizing password best practices, 2-step-authentication, or single sign-on.

  5. Efficiency

    1. Shallow navigation
      Navigation hierarchy is no more than 3 or 4 levels deep.
    2. Responsive layouts
      Layouts are responsive, or optimized for the screen size of target devices.
    3. Navigation shortcuts
      Navigation breadcrumbs, progress trackers, and keyboard shortcuts improve findability.
    4. Accelerators
      Autocomplete, auto-detect and other accelerators improve task speed.
    5. Autosave
      Auto-save and/or cookies maintain session state and prevent accidental data loss.

  6. Language

    1. Internal language
      Branded vocabulary, internal language, and marketing jargon is used sparingly, and absent from navigation, menus, and buttons.
    2. Technical jargon
      Technical or system jargon is absent from error messages and other microcopy.
    3. Acronyms
      Acronyms include access to definitions, and appear in narrative content only.
    4. Plain language
      Technical, legal, and other potentially difficult-to-understand content is written in plain language.
    5. Readability level
      Content readability level is appropriate for the target audience(s).

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Creative Commons License
CARMEL UX Design Guidelines by Eva Kaniasty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/.