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| Heuristic | Explanation |
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| (1) Consistency and standards | Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Standards and conventions in product design should be followed |
| (2) Visibility of the system state | Users should be informed about what is going on with the system through appropriate feedback and display of information |
| (3) Match between system and world | The image of the system perceived by users should match the model the users have about the system: actions and objects on the system should match actions and objects familiar to the users |
| (4) Minimalist | Any extraneous information is a distraction and a slowdown |
| (5) Memory | Users should not be required to memorize a lot of information to carry out tasks. Memory load reduces users’ capacity to carry out the main tasks |
| (6) Informative feedback | Users should be given prompt and informative feedback about their actions |
| (7) Flexibility and efficiency | Users always learn, and users are always different. Give users the flexibility of creating customization and shortcuts to accelerate their performance |
| (8) Error message | The messages should be informative enough such that users can understand the nature of errors, learn from errors, and recover from them |
| (9) Prevent error | It is always better to design interfaces that prevent errors from happening in the first place |
| (10) Clear closure | Every task has a beginning and an end. Users should be clearly notified about the completion of a task |
| (11) Reversible actions | Users should be allowed to recover from errors. Reversible actions also encourage exploratory learning |
| (12) Users’ language | The language should be always presented in a form understandable for the intended users |
| (13) Users in control | Do not give users the impression that they are controlled by the systems |
| (14) Help and documentation | Always provide help when needed |
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