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Usability Heuristic 3: User Control & Freedom

Summary: No. 3 of the top 10 UX design heuristics is to allow users freedom to be in control of the interaction, even if they make mistakes and will need a clearly marked way out of trouble.

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User Control and Freedom (Usability Heuristic #3)

Users often make mistakes or change their minds. Allow them to exit a flow or undo their last action and go back to the system’s previous state.

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Aurora Harley is a Senior User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. Aurora’s research and consulting experience includes organizations in a variety of industries, such as ecommerce, travel, healthcare, and B2B (business-to-business). She also conducts independent research for NN/g, and regularly leads training courses on mobile usability, UX strategies, psychology and UX, and analytics. Aurora combines her background in front-end web development and UX design to inform her work, creating effective designs that balance technical, business, and user needs.

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