Audit a screen in 6 questions

Question 1

Visual attention

Is what the person needs to see first clearly ahead of the rest, or are there three or four things competing for the same place?

Tick what you find

• Secondary actions more prominent than the main one.
• With a pointer, the main action floating in the middle of a large area, far from the edge and the corner, which are the cheapest targets on the screen.
• On touch, the frequent action at the top of the screen or in the upper corners, out of the thumb’s reach.
• Body text below 4.5:1, or large text and interface components below 3:1.

Question 2

Memory load

Does the interface require the user to memorise codes or information from earlier steps, blowing past the four things working memory holds at once?

Tick what you find

• Forms with more than five fields and no logical division.
• Unconventional navigation patterns that break established habits.
• Verification codes displayed without grouping.

Question 3

Reward balance

Does the screen say when a task has ended and give something back right away, or does it only pile up small annoyances?

Tick what you find

• No feedback on task completion.
• Error alerts that are excessively aggressive and blaming.
• A complex sign-up request before any value is delivered.

Question 4

Mental models

Does the flow use conventional mappings so the brain can save energy, or does it force the user to reconfigure maps already consolidated?

Tick what you find

• Icons whose meaning diverges from established use.
• Navigation positions that change between screens.
• Invented gestures with no known equivalent.

Question 5

Persuasion aggressiveness

Are the scarcity and loss-aversion biases being used informatively, or to induce panic?

Tick what you find

• Countdown timers with no real deadline behind them.
• Price comparisons with anchors that were never charged.
• Social numbers with no verifiable source.

Question 6

The body the screen presumes

Do you know in which bodies the laws holding up this screen were measured, or are you applying them all as if they held for anyone?

Tick what you find

• Grouping that exists only in the spacing, with no structure declared in the markup.
• A response-time target written for a good connection, with no visible state when it isn’t.
• A convention followed out of habit, for an audience that doesn’t come from the screens that created the habit.
• A scarcity or urgency trigger for an audience that already lives in real scarcity.
• Colour as the sole carrier of meaning in a state, alert or category.