โ๏ธ Designing For Edge Cases and Exceptions. Practical design guidelines to prevent dead-ends, lock-outs and other UX failures โ ๐ซ People are never edge cases; โaverageโ users donโt exist. โ Exceptions will occur eventually, itโs just a matter of time. โ To prevent failure, we need to explore unhappy paths early. โ Design full UI stack: blank, loading, partial, error, ideal states. โ Design defaults deliberately to prevent slips and mistakes. โ Start by designing the core flow, then scrutinize every part of it. โ Allow users to override validators, or add an option manually. โ Design for incompatibility: contradicting filters, prefs, settings. ๐ซ Avoid generic error messages: they are often main blockers. โ Suggest presets, templates, starter kits for quick recovery. โ Design extreme scales: extra long/short, wide/tall, offline/slow. โ Design irreversible actions, e.g. Delete, Forget, Cancel, Exit. โ Allow users to undo critical actions for some period of time. โ Design a recovery UX due to delays, lock-outs, missing data. โ Accessibility is a reliable way to ensure design resilience. Good design paves happy paths for everyone, but also casts a wide safety net when things go sideways. I love to explore unhappy paths by setting up a dedicated design review to discover exceptions proactively. It can be helpful to also ask AI tooling to come up with alternate scenarios. Once we start discussing exceptions, we start thinking outside of the box. We have to actively challenge generic expectations, stereotypes and assumptions that we as designers typically embed in our work, often unconsciously. And to me, thatโs one of the most valuable assets of such discussions. And: whenever possible, flag any mentions of average users in your design discussions. Such people donโt exist, and often itโs merely an aggregated average of assumptions and hunches. Nothing stress tests your UX better then testing it in realistic conditions with realistic data sets with real people. Useful resources: How To Fix A Bad User Interface, by Scott Hurff https://lnkd.in/ecj6PGPU How To Design Edge Cases, by Tanner Christensen https://lnkd.in/ecs3kr8z How To Find Edge Cases In UX, by Edward Chechique https://lnkd.in/e2pfqqen Just About Everyone Is an Edge Case, by Kevin Ferris https://lnkd.in/eDdUVHyj Edge Cases In UX, by Krisztina Szerovay https://lnkd.in/eM2Xynba Recommended books: โ Design For Real Life, by Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Eric Meyer โ The End of Average, by Todd Rose โ Think Like a UX Researcher, by David Travis, Philip Hodgson โ Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, by Kat Holmes #ux #design
Do you really read all these books (and resources) you recommend? Just curious. If so, then how do you have so much time? ๐
Don't forget the state: Full Show that UI groaning at the sides, what happens beyond the "ideal" state where a lot of concepts stop
Very useful,...making user aware of whats the current state of the process with the action take,preventing irresponsible actions by making them reversible by asking for confirmation, leading user in navigations by providing action to return to specific page, so they not feel lost, are all very important, One have to be so careful while designing these out.
Thatโs where chatgpt and other ai chats help a lot - defining edge cases. You explain what is the system and how it behaves and chats helps to identify what can go wrong ๐
Thanks for including my piece and the UI Stack :) Always grateful. For anyone interested, here's what I'm working on now! https://www.linkedin.com/events/stateofretention2024withscotthu7166726549520547841/theater/
That is such a useful resource! Saved ๐
Thanks for sharing. We definitely need to remind ourselves and execute the good practices in every project. It is a baseline that we need to keep up as a practitioner. If any hippos force you to drop the baseline, just show them the consequences. Amen.
I actually have an acronym I came up with that I call the "FEEEL" States: First-Time Errors Empties Exceptions/Edge Loading
How do you prioritize edge case scenarios during the design process?
UI/UX Design Mentor and Coach || Founder at Meteora || Serious about growing your career as a UI/UX designer? Welcome ๐๐ป || I train entry level and newbie UI/UX Designers to position themselves to attract and land jobs
5moDesign full states for conditions Loading Success Default Partial Blank Error This should be a norm. You never know how all users will interact with your product. Thanks Vitaly for the awakening call