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Usability is a metric used to assess the effectiveness of a User Interface design. An interface is considered '''usable ''' if it is perceived as easy, enjoyable, efficient and effective to use and learn and use.

==What is UI and UX?==UI or User Interface, is the look and feel and interaction between you and the system. The user interface is a series of screens with elements such as buttons , icons and icons that text you use to interact with the SmartSimple System.  If you add move a custom field , add a button, or change a color in your systems you are modifying the User Interface.UX or User experience is how When we feel talk about interacting UI we ask: * Is there enough color contrast?* Is the content concise and easy to read?* Is the layout well organized with a systemenough white space?* Are the pages responsive?* Does it work with assistive technology? [[File:Usability-ui. This png|thumb|none|400px|UI Concerns]] ==What is UX?==The term was coined by Don Norman and UX, encompasses all aspects of the user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.  UX is how you feel when you buy a productbuying, take it out of the storeopening, open the box. It is the entire experience of a system from buyingusing, using and disposing of that a product or /service.A bad UI will create a bad If you make your application process easier/quicker, you are improving the UX. When we talk about UX, we ask: * Can I do what I came to do easily, quickly and simply?* Do I actually want to use this product/service?* Do I trust and appreciate this product/service? [[File:Usability-ux.png|thumb|none|400px|Ux Concerns]]

A usability issue, is any issue that prevents the system from being easy, efficient , and effective to learn and use. Usability issues are ''objective'', such as contrast ratio of text on a background. Usability issues are not ''subjective '' or based on personal preference, such as “I don’t like orange”. [[File:Usability-obj-vs-sub.png|thumb|none|400px|Usability issues are objective]]

There are established standards called Heuristics that are used to evaluate the usability of a user interface design. They are called Heuristics and there are 10 of them which we have contexted and summarized below. You can also learn more about these heuristics in general on this external site [https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/Nielsen Norman Group article].

These 10 heuristics summarized below are a tool for discovering usability issues in a user interface. ==What are the 10 Heuristics?for Better User Interface Design==The 10 Originally developed in 1990, Jakob Nielson's ten heuristics for better usability in design is still relevant today and is used to evaluate the usability of as a user benchmark in many modern interface design systems. They are as follows:

Make sure Think about an elevator, I press the button and it lights up. I know the elevator is coming. I look up and see how long I have to wait until the elevator arrives. [[File:Usability-elevator.png|thumb|none|400px|Elevator showing visibility of system status]] Let people know what is going on with appropriate feedback. Do your users know what is going on, and what is expected of them.Ask yourself, do I know what is going on and what is expected of mewill happen next?

Keep it consistent, and follow industry standards. If everyone places the OK button in the same place consider doing the same. [[File:Usability-consistant.png|thumb|none|400px|Keep the UI consistent and follow industry standards]] Make sure buttons and links are named the same thing, are located in the same place, and put where they are expected to be.Ask yourself: do I know where to find desired links and buttons, do I know what they do, and are they always in the same place? Are repeating button and link configurations arranged consistently and reliably?

Make sure all If I ask you '''What’s the Capital of Canada?''' I am forcing you to recall the answer. It's much easier if I asked you '''Is Ottawa the information and instructions needed capital of Canada?''' because you only need to complete an recognize the answer. [[File:Usability-ottawa.jpg|thumb|none|400px|Help users recognize the answer or action are available.(Parliament buildings in Ottawa)]] Don’t make your users think, reduce the cognitive load on users by asking them to recognize over recall any information. Ask yourself: are all instructions and information I need available so I can take my users easily recognize the appropriate actionactions they need to take?

* Not forcing the user to remember anything or thinktoo hard

Help your users accomplish their goals faster and with less effort using accelerators. An accelerator is something like on Instagram where you can double tap an image to “like” it instead of clicking the tiny heart. The double tap is slightly more efficient than finding and clicking the heart icon. Another example is using CTRL + C to quickly copy instead of using menus in windows. You might accelerate a user’s application by providing default options, or pull data from a previous application to populate a new one. [[File:Usability-insta.png|thumb|none|400px|Provide accelerators to users.]] Help users accomplish their goals faster by adding shortcuts and , default optionsand other accelerators.Ask yourself: can we help the user accomplish their goals faster and with less effort?

Every piece of information you put on a page competes with the relevant information, and diminishes the relative visibility (more content makes the UX worse). When we talk about signal to noise, Google is almost all signal whereas this weather site is nearly all noise. So, ask yourself, is everything on the page absolutely needed to help the user achieve their goals? If not consider removing or simplifying things. [[File:Usability-signal-noise.jpg|thumb|none|800px|Google and Weather site demonstrating signal to noise.]] Make sure what the user came to see or do is visible and clear, and eliminate anything that may distract them.Ask yourself: is it clear what I am supposed to do and is there anything distracting me from completing my task?

* Being judicious with colorand imagery

This is really 3 things: # Indicate an error has occurred with some type of visual and warning message# Tell the user what the problem is in plain language# Provide a path forward, how does the user fix the issue? if possible, include a shortcut or something the user can click to resolve the issue [[File:Usability-errormsg.png|thumb|none|400px|An error message indicates an error occurred, tells the user what the problem is, and provides a path forward.]] Help users understand and fix errors with clear messaging that explains the problem and how they should resolve the error.Ask yourself: when I encounter a problem, do I know what I did wrong, and how to fix it?

* Always providing or suggest suggesting a solution

It's best if a system can be used without any documentation, but when you need documentation make sure: # It appears where it is needed# List out the concrete steps# Keep the instructions shortAnd remember many users don’t want to have to read instructions. [[File:Usability-instructions.jpg|thumb|none|400px|Make sure help and documentation is clear, concise and where you need it.]] Help users understand what is expected of them and how to do it by including context-sensitive instructions, highlighting new features and changes in functionality.Ask yourself: is my help documentation where it is needed, can ? Can my users understand what they need to do and are ? Are my users aware of new functionality and changes?

==How do I ensure my system is and stays user-friendly?Final notes==Whether you are making changes to your system or you have a team making changes for you, always use the above heuristics to test the workeffect of changes on the usability of your system. If you find an issue, bring it up with your team or call support. Most issues can be resolved through configuration, but if you encounter something that is notconfiguration related, raise an enhancement ticket and help make talk with us so we can enhance SmartSimple better Cloud for everyone. Help for specific issues and features can also be found on the wiki '''Suggested UX Sites''' *[https://www.nngroup.com/ nngroup.com]*[https://www.interaction-design.org/ Interaction Design Foundation]*[https://lawsofux.com/ lawsofux.com]