Designing for Human Performance and Well-being: The Importance of Ergonomics in UI Design

Ergonomics is the science of designing products and environments that are well-suited to human physical and cognitive capabilities. In the context of UI design, ergonomics involves creating interfaces that are intuitive, easy to use and don’t cause physical strain or discomfort. By applying ergonomic principles to UI design, we can improve user experience, reduce errors, and increase productivity.

Designing for Human Performance and Well-being

Ergonomics aims to create products, environments, and systems that are optimized for human use and well-being. This involves considering factors such as user comfort, safety, efficiency, and productivity.

In UI design, ergonomics plays a crucial role in creating interfaces that are user-friendly, intuitive, and efficient, and that minimize the risk of physical and cognitive strain or discomfort.

User-Centred Design

User-centred design is a key ergonomic design principle that emphasizes understanding user needs, goals, and behaviours to create products that meet their requirements.

It involves involving users throughout the design process, from gathering requirements and feedback to testing and iterating on design solutions. This approach ensures that the final product is tailored to the needs of the intended users, leading to higher levels of usability, satisfaction, and adoption.

In the context of UI design, user-centred design involves conducting user research to understand user goals, preferences, and pain points, and using this information to inform the design of interfaces that are easy to use and align with user needs. This can involve methods such as user interviews, surveys, usability testing, and persona creation.

By taking a user-centred approach to UI design, designers can create interfaces that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use, leading to higher levels of user satisfaction and engagement.

User-centred design methods

1. User research: Conduct interviews, surveys, and observations to gain insights into users’ needs, behaviours, and pain points.
2. Persona development: Creating fictional representations of users based on user research, to help designers better understand and empathize with their target audience.
3. Usability testing: Testing a product with real users to identify usability issues and gather feedback on how to improve the design.
4. Card sorting: Asking users to group items into categories to understand how they think about and organize information.
5. Task analysis: Breaking down complex tasks into smaller steps to identify areas where users may struggle or encounter errors.
6. Contextual inquiry: Observing users in their natural environment to understand how they interact with technology in their daily lives.
7. User journey mapping: Visualizing the steps that users take to complete a task, to identify pain points and areas for improvement in the user experience.

1. Fitts’ Law

Fitts’ Law is a model that predicts the time required to move to a target based on its size and distance from the starting point. It was first proposed by psychologist Paul Fitts in 1954 and has since been used as a key principle in ergonomics and user-centred design.

Fitts’ Law has important implications for UI design. By increasing the size of frequently used buttons or icons and placing them closer to the starting point, designers can reduce the time and effort required for users to access them. This can enhance the user experience and increase productivity.

Creating Larger Targets

For example, in a music player app, the “play” button could be designed to be larger than other buttons and placed in a prominent location on the screen, making it easy for users to start playing their favourite songs without having to search for the button.

Fitts’ Law is a powerful tool for UI designers looking to improve the usability and effectiveness of their designs. By understanding the relationship between target size and distance, designers can create interfaces that are intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly.

2. Hick’s Law

It was easy to choose between two options rather than a set of options. That’s simple logic.

Hick’s Law is an important principle in ergonomics that describes the relationship between the number of choices available and the time it takes to make a decision. It suggests that as the number of options increases, the time it takes to make a decision also increases.

In the context of UI design, Hick’s Law has important implications for the design of menus, forms, and other interactive elements. When users are presented with too many choices, it can lead to decision paralysis and frustration. To simplify the decision-making process and improve the user experience, designers can apply Hick’s Law by reducing the number of options available.

For example, in a dropdown menu, designers can limit the number of items displayed to only the most commonly used options. In a registration form, designers can remove optional fields that may not be necessary for the user to complete. By reducing the number of choices presented to the user, designers can streamline the decision-making process and improve the overall usability of the interface.

It’s also important to understand when not to do it. Hick’s Law should not extend to difficult decisions. If the decision necessitates thorough reading, study, or deliberation, Hick’s Law would not be able to predict the appropriate time to make a decision.

For example, choosing a fancy restaurant for dinner or an AirBnB location to stay for your vacation next week. These kinds of decisions are difficult to make. Before making a final decision, users must consider and weigh several choices. Hick’s Law estimation would fail in these situations. It only extends to clear, fast decisions that are made in the proper sense.

References

https://uxplanet.org/breaking-down-fitts-law-for-ux-designers-542cabb48f9

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hicks-law-laws-ux-siva-prakash-n/