Heuristic Evaluation — H3: User control and freedom
The third heuristic given by Jakob Nielsen is — User control and freedom. This heuristic states:
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo & redo.
Let’s look at this heuristic in detail and understand its implications on the design solution:
People often want to finish their tasks quickly on the system. With so many distractions in their surroundings, it can lead to wrong clicks and choosing the wrong system functions, which in turn can be a frustrating experience for them. In all such scenarios, users require a clearly marked emergency exit to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Therefore while designing a user interface make sure to provide the Redo and Undo functionality in your system.
For example, in the case of a browser, the back button serves as an emergency exit whenever a user lands on an unwanted page. Another good example of this can be the recycle bin, which helps the user to undo the accident deletion of an important file. In all of these examples, you can clearly see that the system gives freedom and control to the user. This enables the users to use the system without any inhibitions because they know even if they commit a mistake the system will help them to recover from it.
Practical Examples and Applications
Let’s look at some more examples to understand the importance of third heuristic User Control and Freedom for any design solution. One of the best examples where this heuristic is applied is Microsoft Powerpoint.
In Powerpoint, if you make a mistake, you can always undo and recover from it, and if you want to go deeper, Powerpoint has a revision history that can help you to restore to a previous state of your work. In the given screenshot you can see that this heuristic has been nicely implemented by Microsoft Powerpoint. Imagine how would your experience be if this functionality of redo and undo was missing in PowerPoint. Another good example of this redo and undo functionality is Google Docs. In addition to undo and redo function, this application also provides the functionality of version control that means you can see and restore the previous versions of the current document. You can also see the number of edits that were made recently.
Another very good example of this is Google Keep. This application provides the functionality to create and capture notes on the go. In this application, when a particular note is not required anymore, a user can either delete it or archive it. And when a user archives or deletes a note, the system presents him with an option to undo his action. Through this functionality, the system gives control to the user to correct his mistake. Similarly, if the user unarchives a note from the archives folder, the system presents the option to undo that act as well. Thus giving him the freedom to explore the system without any inhibition.
Similar system behavior can be seen when a user moves a file from one folder to another in Google Drive. The system provides an undo option to the user just in case it was not what the user intended.
Here is another great example where you can see the application of this heuristic.
This is the installation window for Adobe Suite. Adobe Suite consists of a lot of applications and therefore quite naturally takes a good amount of time to get installed. Here is a screenshot of the same. In this screenshot, you can see that the system provides control to the user to cancel the installation at any point in time. As we already discussed, the installation takes substantial time and in a scenario where the user can’t afford to spend that amount of time on the installation, he can abandon the operation at any point in time and can do it later. In this case, the system gives him the freedom to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue.
One of the very good examples of this is Uber App. They have implemented this heuristic quite nicely. During my first trip to the US, while booking an Uber, I was wondering how will the driver contact me as my Uber account has my Indian mobile number. I checked and got to know that they do have the functionality to change your mobile number on the app. It was really a great experience for me as I could use my same Uber Account to book a cab in the US as well. There was no need to create a separate account for that. Here the system gave me the freedom to change my information based on my need and requirement, which in turn proved to be a great experience for me as a user.
Therefore while creating any design solution, it is very critical to consider all those scenarios where the probability of making mistakes is high or where the information can change based on certain circumstances. According to this heuristic, in all such scenarios, the system should give freedom to the users to change the information based on their needs and requirement. For example the option to change the current address, mobile number, subscription plan, etc.
Implementing this heuristic in your design will make your users explore and use the system without any inhibition because they know even if they commit a mistake the system will help them to recover from it.
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