Design Heuristics — Action
On this page 5 headings
28. Freedom to undo or recover
Deleted a file → recover from trash; documents → recovery options; Undo — Ctrl+Z.
29. Freedom to explore
Platforms should let users explore key features — online shopping lets you look at products without signing in. In the lecture's earlier IRCTC example, users could not search for trains without logging in, restricting their freedom; the later example allows searching without logging in.
30. Flexibility: beginner and expert methods
Flexibility means supporting different ways to complete the same task. New users use menus for cut/copy/paste in Microsoft Word or Google Docs; experts use keyboard shortcuts.
31. Personalization versus customization
Personalization occurs when the system adapts content automatically for a user. Customization occurs when the user explicitly chooses settings or categories. Example: personalization — social media; customization — news apps asking which topics.
32. Recognition over recall
Users have limited memory and find it easier to recognize something seen earlier — e.g. 'What is the capital of Spain?' vs 'Is Madrid the capital of Spain?'. Pre-GUI: moving a file in Linux needed mv temp.txt new_folder/; now: right-click on the file. Buttons and navigation should help users reach their goal: In the Google redesign example discussed in the lecture, the earlier product icons (e.g. Gmail's envelope shape) were easy to recognize; after the redesign all apps had the same colour and form, and many people found them hard to tell apart on small screens.