Jakob Nielsen

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Screenshot of “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design”

Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.


  1. Navigation doesn’t have to be hidden behind a "Menu"-button. If it matters, we need to show it, and do so prominently. Some items are more important or more frequently used, so they might deserve a little bit more spotlight in your navigation.

    In addition to prominent navigation options @vitalyf shows in his thread, I really like the horizontal overflow scrolling navigation, enhanced with @LeaVerou's scrolling shadows.