Flexibility and efficiency of use

A product should serve newcomers and experts at once, offering shortcuts and customization that speed up frequent users without getting in the way of people who are still learning.

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The law

A product should serve newcomers and experts at once.

Frequent users need shortcuts that make repeated tasks faster. Newcomers need a clear, visible path. Good design offers both, so that the accelerators stay out of the way until someone is ready for them.

Where it comes from

This is the seventh of Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics, published in their current form in 1994. Nielsen Norman Group's article on Flexibility and Efficiency of Use describes accelerators, personalization and customization as the three main ways to meet it.

The heuristic reflects a long-standing problem in interface design: the people who use a product most are also the ones who notice its slowness most, while designs optimized for first use often frustrate them. Keyboard shortcuts in early graphical systems were one of the first answers.

What it means for an interface

  • Offer accelerators. Keyboard shortcuts, gestures, bulk actions and command palettes let experts skip steps.
  • Keep the slow path visible. Every shortcut should have a visible equivalent, so newcomers are not lost and experts can discover the faster way.
  • Let people tailor frequent tasks. Saved filters, templates, favourites and default settings save repeated effort.
  • Personalize with care. Showing relevant items based on past behaviour helps, as long as people understand why they see them and can find everything else.

Examples

Command palettes. Design and code tools that open a searchable command list with one shortcut let experts run any command without the mouse, while menus remain for everyone else.

Bulk actions. An inbox that lets people select many messages and archive them at once turns a repetitive task into one action.

Saved searches. A job board that saves a search with its filters lets returning users skip the setup they would otherwise repeat every visit.

Where it is misapplied

  • Shortcuts only. Features reachable only through a gesture or key combination are invisible to most people.
  • Customization as a substitute for good defaults. Most people never change settings. The default has to work.
  • Unpredictable personalization. Menus that reorder themselves break the muscle memory experts rely on.
  • Clutter for experts. Showing every advanced option to everyone serves no one. Reveal advanced features progressively.

Checklist

  • Frequent actions have a shortcut or accelerator.
  • Every shortcut has a visible equivalent in the interface.
  • Shortcuts are discoverable, for example shown next to the menu item.
  • Repeated setup, such as filters and templates, can be saved.
  • Personalized content never reorders navigation people rely on.

Sources

  1. Nielsen Norman Group. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use (Usability Heuristic #7).
  2. Nielsen, J. (1994). Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. Proceedings of CHI '94, 152–158. ACM.