Heuristics & interaction principles - what´s the difference?
In our courses, we are often asked if there is a difference between the 7 Interaction Principles in the ISO 9241-110 and the 10 Nielsen Heuristics. Many of our participants know the Nielsen Heuristics and at first glance they are pretty reluctant to read the 7 Interaction principles and when they think about the amount of content they have to digest in the course. In the CPUX-F courses both sets of criteria are explained to a certain extent, however not very much detailed. It is just explained on a very high level what the have in common.
Some of the participants heard about the Nielsen Heuristics already and used them in their projects to have a quick feedback if their design meets the users needs for usability. We talk about the concept of Usability in a different article, because it plays a vital role in digital transformation.
Only a minor part of participants heard about the Interaction principles. Some heard about the Dialoque principles. The most common on comment on the Dialoque principles is that they are wrtitten in "norm language" which is true. Therfore the group of editors did a redesign of the principles in 2018 and renamed the principles to "Interaction Principles". The intention was to have better understandable principles and to include psychological aspects from persuasive design (BJ Fogg).
So we will use the newest version of the Interaction Principles from ISO 9241-110:2018 and will compare it with the 10 Heuristics from usability engineering pioneer Jakob Nielsen.
Yes, there are both differences and commonalities between the 7 Interaction Principles of ISO 9241-110 and Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics when designing interactive systems. Below is a comparison of both:
1. Differences
Aspect |
ISO 9241-110 |
Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics |
| Scope |
Focuses on high-level principles of interaction design and human-system interaction |
Focuses on practical usability heuristics for evaluating interfaces |
| Origin |
International standard (ISO) for ergonomics of human-system interaction |
Developed from usability testing and interface design practices |
| Application |
Applied in broader human-system interaction contexts, including hardware and software |
Applied mainly in UI/UX design for digital interfaces |
| Flexibility |
More general guidelines, adaptable to various technologies and interaction styles |
More specific to evaluating graphical user interfaces |
| Structure |
7 principles, each covering a fundamental aspect of interactive system design |
10 heuristics, more detailed for evaluating usability issues |
2. Common Aspects
Both ISO 9241-110 and Nielsen’s Heuristics share fundamental principles in designing interactive systems:
Common Principle |
ISO 9241-110:2018 |
Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics |
|
User Control & Flexibility |
Controllability | User control and freedom |
|
Error Prevention & Handling |
Use error robustness | Error prevention & help users recover from errors |
|
Feedback & Visibility |
Self-descriptiveness | Visibility of system status |
|
Consistency & Predictability |
Conformity with user expectations | Consistency and standards |
|
Efficiency & Support |
Suitability for the users tasks & Learnability | Recognition rather than recall |
|
Guidance & Assistance |
Learnability | Help and documentation |
|
Conversational dialoque |
User engagement | na |
3. Key Takeaways
- ISO 9241-110 is broader, covering principles for designing interactive systems in general (not just UI), including adaptability and error tolerance.
- Nielsen’s Heuristics focus specifically on usability evaluation, particularly for graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
- They overlap in key usability aspects like user control, feedback, error prevention, and consistency, but differ in scope and application.
- Since the revision of the ISO 9241-110:2018 the interaction principles cover also psychological aspects, the heuristics do not cover that.
