This article will cover the Amélie Boucher Ergonomics, which is known for its ease of use. The goal of this article is to simplify the heuristics so any UX professionals could reference them with ease, which helps them create analyses more quickly and efficiently.
Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process. Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles (the “heuristics”).”
Heuristic evaluation is a process where experts use rules of thumb to measure the usability of user interfaces in independent walkthroughs and report issues. Evaluators use established heuristics and reveal insights that can help design teams enhance product usability from early in development.
Who is Amélie Boucher?
Amélie Boucher's profession is an ergonomist, who is specializing in human-computer interactions.
For 17 years, she is working as an expert in interface and interaction design. She has worked with clients to create, improve, and shake up their digital projects or the organization of Design teams.
Amélie Boucher's also published studies at Eyrolles and also lectured on user interface designs driven by the desire to develop and professionalize the practice of UX Design in France.
""No ready-made method, by the book approach, pre-established certainties. I believe in made-to-measure, with a certain taste for accuracy and precision. I am committed by your side, you gain in impact."
The passionate author developed the 12 rules of ergonomics applied in UX Design in an exemplary way in the world of digital design. Let's explore these formulas and their criteria in detail.
The website architecture should be clearly identified to offer the user the best satisfaction, experience, and optimal ergonomics. Furthermore, a piece of well-organized information, clear menus, and fluid navigation should be well provided. In this case, the information architecture process should be about organizing information so that the user can intuitively navigate through it.
To achieve this, information must be categorized by creating content groups and providing some structuring work by prioritizing the elements. Below are steps to include in practice:
Make content groups that make sense and have flow.
Get organized by emphasizing the main points. Always keep in mind that logical and easy navigation results in positive user satisfaction and user experience.
The objective is to keep the visitor on the website for as long as possible by addressing all of the questions the user has on the website, providing the user with all the possible answers, and making the user discover additional information too.
2. Visual organization
The visual structure refers to a website page, which is constantly focused on visual architecture, whose goal is to improve the user's cognitive perception. The writing must be organized and fluid.
The subject-related images should be high quality, must come from trustworthy sources, and should be easily accessible. Below are steps to include in practice:
Eliminate irrelevant information by putting the most important information first.
Check your writing for error such as repetitions, void sentences, or filler language. Give your writing life by giving it oxygen. Make appropriate use of HTML tags, pay attention to font size and selection, and choose unambiguous images that leave a good impression.
3. Consistency
When it comes to website navigation, the user will form an impression or image of how your website is organized. Therefore, the UX designer's main objective is to ensure the user has the best user satisfaction and user experience possible. More importantly, the UX designer should ensure that the user wants to use the web interface again.
In order to make navigating easier, a certain level of uniformity is required. Below are steps to include in practice:
Pay close attention to how each component of your site is positioned and situated. Maintain this uniformity throughout all of your pages like the "Add to cart," "Next page," "Learn more," and other interface buttons. The typeface, color, and shape should all be uniform as well. The user's actions should be automated by this concordance, allowing them to concentrate on the essence of the information in front of them.
Carefully examine the semantics of your content or text. Words and their variations need to be fluid in order to envelop the reader in a rich lexical bubble. This is also an excellent method to enhance the referencing on your website.
In first-time visits, remember that the user has prior knowledge of browsing experience from visiting other websites. Thus, the user already has a general idea of how things work such as anticipating the website functions. Remember, Jakob's Law. which talks about the convention of reproduction. This particular principle applies here.
In ergonomics, if you take into account the conventions and standards already established on the web, you guarantee a large part of your future users' adherence. Indeed, convention such as Jakob's law makes it possible to implement and accept ergonomics rules adapted to surfing the web. Below are steps to include in practice:
Make sure that the primary elements of interaction are always in the same locations. It might be the logos, the search box, the basket access, etc.
Respect the same forms of communication that the most well-known websites provide as well. Users anticipate that your website will operate exactly as the vast majority of other websites that they frequently visit. This gives the uers a feeling of comfort.
5. Information
By providing the Internet user with pertinent information, a website's content primarily aims to live up to the user's expectations. It seems like this rule makes sense. On the other hand, it needs to be applied at every level of your web UX design analysis. Always provide information that is straightforward and basic. Below are steps to include in practice:
Always give users access to information about the navigation. Make the search bar always open so that they can get the solution on the spur-of-the-moment inquiry. Make the menu bar accessible when scrolling across the page so that the users can access it at any time.
Just mention yourself on the "About" or "Service" page to help readers get to know you and know who is giving them such excellent advice and service.
6. Understanding
The internet is a human being. Therefore, we must address the Internet personally and utilize semantic codes that it is familiar with.
In this principle, it's critical to establish the analysis or research of the persona, or the usual profile of the target user, in detail such as the gender, socioeconomic status, manner of consumption, preferred digital medium, etc.
We can target this UX design strategy and concentrate on comprehending the information we give to the end users by using all these fictitious elements. Below are steps to include in practice:
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Words have a significant and powerful impact, especially online, where there is a wealth of information. There are thousands of solutions for a particular topic. And there are so many ways to approach the issue at hand. What do you hope to achieve? The answer is obvious: to practice reading to hone yourself as a specialist in the industry. Always craft your response as original and unique. Your materials should have all the information that users require to satisfy their informational cravings.
In Amélie Boucher's ergonomics, the choice you make when using logos, symbols, or images is crucial. The logos must be clear and the symbols must all be understood! The Internet user must understand how these pictures relate to one another to even before you click on them.
No matter what the theme or goal of the project website for which you are accountable, every piece you add there must provide the intention of assisting users in terms of navigation, whether this intention is implicit or explicit. For it:
Visibility and organization will serve as your design guiding principles. The simplest solution is to make it straightforward so that visitors to your website are not inundated with intricate and constricting operations. For instance, the menu bar that is typically at the top of the website will make navigation easier.
Additionally, you greatly simplify your user's navigating task by including logical clicks. To achieve this, make all the decision-supporting elements clickable. Of course, we know that the "Add to cart" button is commonly used on e-commerce websites. However, you may also have "size guide" or "choice of colors" as other buttons.
8. Error management
The goal of UX design is to give the user a navigationally simple experience on your website, ad user satisfaction.
This user navigation should keep visitors on the site for as long as possible, move them through pages, or, in the case of an e-commerce site, encourage them to turn their action into a purchase.
But occasionally, for whatever reason, the system chooses to stop the smooth and easy visit. For example, the user's delivery address is flagged as "invalid" by the system when validating his cart. The customer is taken back to an error page by the system, where they are required to enter their delivery details once more.
The result is pretty human: either the user diligently completes his cart or abandons his cart and expresses doubts about the validity of the website. Below are steps to include in practice:
Make sure that the buyer is not wrong. To achieve this, plan your website project so that the user is correctly guided in all of his activities. Again, using the delivery address as an example, whenever the user is required to fill out a form with the required data, mark the fields that are required with an asterisk so that the system won't be able to reject the form in the case of an error or user make mistakes on the form.
Each field should have labels and captions, and you should especially adjust the input fields' length.
9. Speed
The Internet user is, by definition, permanently instantaneous. A user comes to your website with two goals in mind: to locate what he was looking for and to find it quickly.
Your goal in ergonomics is to fulfill these two objectives as much as you can. Below are steps to include in practice:
Make the items available to users through the law of proximity. The information fields and the action button should remain close to one another to accomplish your goal. For instance, you might have noticed that the "Add to basket" button is always there next to the related product on an online store website. You might respond that it seems reasonable, but you should give it some thought.
Determining the design of your website will guarantee that a customer never needs to start over during the purchasing process. For instance, include payment validation details to reassure him that his credit card payment has been processed. Alternatively, show him a message recognizing his purchase to let him know the system has received and processed his payment. On the one hand, this reassures the buyer, and on the other, it gives your website legitimacy.
10. Freedom
Even though your job entails foreseeing user wants and behavior, it is crucial that Amélie Boucher's ergonomics of your site give users the most freedom possible when navigating.
The Internet user must feel in control of his navigation of the website. Each activity must be approved for this. Below are steps to include in practice:
If your website has the same features as other websites that the user is familiar with, they will feel comfortable taking action on it. You must follow the convention's rules, which are based on norms found on other websites, to make this happen. As a result, the UX designer will adapt to the user's surfing preferences, taking into account the textual copy function, element layout, potential for going back, etc.
Every activity taken by the user must be approved by the user. Without it, he will feel pressured to comply and is likely to switch to a different site that gives him more control. The result of this is an increase in your dropout rate.
11. Accessibility
When it comes to creating a persona, you consider every single factor of your users when as part of your design development process. This considers all of the users' physical and psychological capabilities, independent of the target population. To remember this very important rule of Amélie Boucher's ergonomics, just remember that each of us has some kind of deficit. Below are steps to include in practice:
Your goal is to make your website accessible to all users, without distinction and regardless of the media or channel through which they reach it, to fulfill this requirement in terms of Aamélie Boucher's ergonomics. Thus, each visitor must be able to gain something from the information on your site within the same terms of ease, fluidity, and comfort. According to the perceptual modalities that come after them, this is also the case.
About the technical side of this accessibility, all users must be able to make use of the information on your website regardless of their browser, operating system, screen size, or resolution, as well as any activated features like JavaScript, picture display, or cookies. This applies to all kinds of applications as well as installed plugins like Flash. Learn the requirements for your applications and website's digital accessibility.
12. User satisfaction
User satisfaction is the basic rule and the main objective of Amélie Boucher's ergonomics law. Every decision you make must be based on this rule, which supersedes all other rules.
The purpose of your job, whether it be a planned project or one that is already underway, is to satisfy your prospective users. For this, it's crucial to thoroughly assess your requirements, comprehend them, and record them using a logical and fluid framework.
Then, your content must clearly and completely satisfy their expectations. Finally, the user's loyalty will greatly depend on how creative you are.
Conclusion
Amélie Boucher's law of ergonomics provides us with her experience and research throughout the years of observing users and their behavior on websites. We suggest you read more of Amélie Boucher's publications and books to get a good overview of the user interface models and the dialectics between content components and the vocabulary of user interface observation.
No matter the type of web page there is, whether it be the homepage, content page, listing page, or form, Amélie Boucher's studies insist on a comprehensive approach of the examination of the user experience.
Since it focuses on user design, it differs from theoretical scholarship on the subject. In this context, the French author and lecturer provide a more aesthetic style and richer descriptions explaining ergonomic facts that are simplified and optimized.
