ux.sgit.ai

Principles

Each principle here is kept because at least one finding breaks it: the list grows from evidence, not from taste. Each has a test you can run on your own page in about a minute. When a new kind of failure does not fit any of them, that is a new principle.

  1. A decision comes with what you need to make it (2 open)
  2. Work is never lost to one tap or a silent failure (1 open)
  3. The reader can always tell what the system is doing (1 open)
  4. The first screen is for a stranger (6 open)
  5. Nothing moves that the reader did not move (2 open)
  6. The same gesture gives the same result, so it can be learned (1 open)
  7. Label the money, and never surprise with a charge (4 open)
  8. A default is not an answer (2 open)
  9. Ask before keeping (2 open)
  10. Every view is a link (3 open)
  11. No dead ends (6 open)
  12. One source of truth for every fact (3 open)
  13. The publication is not the workshop (4 open)
  14. Feedback reaches someone, and the reader gets a receipt (3 open)
  15. Say how long, and what kind, before the reader commits (3 open)
  16. Say who wrote it, and how (4 open)
  17. Content is visible without waiting for scripts (2 open)
  18. What a page says about the present is true now (3 open)
  19. A vault app works inside the host, not just on its own (3 open)

1 A decision comes with what you need to make it

Any prompt that asks the reader to decide (allow, pay, share, delete) first says, in plain words, what will happen, what it touches, whether it can be undone, and why it is being asked. The raw detail is there for checking, not as the explanation.

Why
A decision the reader cannot judge is not a decision. They either refuse and stall the work, or learn to press Allow without reading, and a security prompt that trains people to press Allow is worse than no prompt at all.
The test
Show the prompt to someone for five seconds. Can they say what will happen if they press each button? If they would need to read code to answer, the prompt has failed.

Broken by 2 findings, 2 open.

2 Work is never lost to one tap or a silent failure

What the reader has made (a recording, a draft, a note) cannot be destroyed by a single unlabelled tap, and is kept when something fails. Destructive actions ask first or can be undone; failures keep the raw capture and offer a retry.

Why
Losing work once teaches the reader to distrust the whole tool. From then on they spend attention guarding against the tool instead of using it, and some stop using it at all.
The test
Make something, then press every button that could end the flow. Can any one tap destroy it without asking? Cut the network halfway: is what you made still there?

Broken by 1 findings, 1 open.

3 The reader can always tell what the system is doing

At every moment the interface shows whether it is listening, working, paused, done or failed. A process that stops shows that it stopped; it never just goes quiet.

Why
Silence is ambiguous. Without a visible state the reader cannot tell a slow system from a broken one, so they either wait for something that will never come or abandon something that was working.
The test
Start a long operation and watch it. If it stalled now, would anything on screen change? Can you tell "still working" from "failed" without waiting for the end?

Broken by 1 findings, 1 open.

What good looks like: EX-002 Dictation that shows your words as you speak them.

4 The first screen is for a stranger

On a phone, the first screen says what this is, who it is for, and where to go next. The lead is on it. Chrome, metadata and method come after.

Why
Most readers arrive from a link someone sent, on a phone, with one question and a few minutes. If the first screen does not answer 'what is this', the rest of the page is never read.
The test
Open the page at 390×844 with no history. Count the blocks above the lead. Can someone who has never heard of the site say what it is about?

Broken by 8 findings, 6 open.

5 Nothing moves that the reader did not move

While the reader is reading, the interface holds still. Toolbars, keyboards, banners and panels appear, move or take focus only on a deliberate gesture made for that purpose, never as a side effect of scrolling or reading.

Why
Movement pulls the eye. Every element that moves outside the reader's task forces a glance, a check and a return, which is a context switch the reader did not choose. On a reading page, concentration is the product.
The test
Read a long page on a phone or tablet: scroll down, scroll up a little, pause, carry on. Did anything appear, resize, shift or take focus that you did not ask for? Did the text you were reading stay where it was?

Broken by 3 findings, 2 open.

6 The same gesture gives the same result, so it can be learned

Every interaction behaves the same way every time, triggered by something the reader controls (where they tap, how far they scroll), never by something they cannot see or repeat (how fast they flicked, what state an animation was in).

Why
An interface teaches as it is used. When the same action always gives the same result, the reader learns it once and from then on can depend on it without thinking. When it depends on speed or timing, it can never be learned, and every use costs attention.
The test
Do the same thing five times: scroll, flick, tap, at slightly different speeds. Did the interface respond the same way each time? Could you reach the state you wanted on the first try?

Broken by 1 findings, 1 open.

What good looks like: EX-001 Safari on iPad hides its toolbars the same way every time, after a small scroll.

7 Label the money, and never surprise with a charge

Every number that is money says what it is. The first time anything is charged, the reader is told before or as it happens. Wording about balances never reads as debt or threat.

Why
An unexplained balance that changes is read as a bill. One confused moment about money ends the visit and the trust.
The test
Find every currency figure on the page. Does each have a label? Open a page that charges: did anything say so?

Broken by 5 findings, 4 open.

8 A default is not an answer

Inputs that ask the reader's opinion start empty. Only what the reader actually did is recorded.

Why
A scale preset to 3 cannot tell 'not rated' from 'useful'. The data looks real and means nothing, to the reader and to the author.
The test
Open the form fresh. Is any answer already chosen? Submit without touching it: what was recorded?

Broken by 2 findings, 2 open.

9 Ask before keeping

Nothing is added to the reader's lists, profile or storage because they opened something. Keeping is a tap the reader makes.

Why
State the reader did not ask for is clutter at best and surveillance at worst. It also makes the reader's own record useless as a record.
The test
Open a page, close it. Did anything appear in the reader's list, board or persona set?

Broken by 2 findings, 2 open.

11 No dead ends

Everything that looks like a way in is one: tags link to pages, missing pages offer the way back, each article ends with one next step.

Why
A tag that does not link, a default 404 and an article that ends with seven options all stop the reader at the moment they were ready to go further.
The test
Click every pill, chip and label on a page. Visit a URL that does not exist. Reach the end of an article: what is the one next step?

Broken by 7 findings, 6 open.

12 One source of truth for every fact

Each piece of content is published once, at one canonical address. Every count, date and label is generated from one manifest at build time.

Why
Readers notice when two pages disagree, and they stop trusting both. A count that differs between three pages says the site does not know itself.
The test
Find the same number on three pages (article count, edition date, version). Do they agree? Does each article have exactly one canonical?

Broken by 4 findings, 3 open.

13 The publication is not the workshop

Reader pages carry reader things. How the site is built (versions, author tooling, agent strips, release history, admin) lives in one clearly separate area, one link away.

Why
Builder chrome on a reader page spends the reader's attention on something they did not come for, and makes the site look like a demo instead of a publication.
The test
List every element on a reader page that only the author or an agent needs. Each one is a finding.

Broken by 4 findings, 4 open.

14 Feedback reaches someone, and the reader gets a receipt

Every rating, request or 'what is missing' goes somewhere a person reads it, by default and with plain consent, and the reader keeps a receipt of what was sent.

Why
Feedback kept only in the reader's browser teaches the author nothing, and a reader who is never answered stops answering.
The test
Rate something. Where did it go? Who reads it, and when? What does the reader have to show they sent it?

Broken by 3 findings, 3 open.

15 Say how long, and what kind, before the reader commits

Every card and every link to a long piece shows reading time and format. Every long piece opens with a short version.

Why
A reader with three minutes will not start a 25-minute piece blind. Telling them lets them choose; not telling them makes them leave.
The test
Look at a list of articles. Can you tell which is a five-minute note and which is a 40-minute analysis?

Broken by 3 findings, 3 open.

16 Say who wrote it, and how

The byline names the person and the way the piece was made (with agents, from voice notes), where the reader looks, not in the footer. The purpose of the publication is one link away.

Why
Readers judge a piece by who stands behind it. Disclosure in the footer reads as concealment when it is found.
The test
From the top of any article, can a reader tell who wrote it, with what help, and why the publication exists?

Broken by 4 findings, 4 open.

17 Content is visible without waiting for scripts

The page renders its content in HTML and shows it at once. Scripts enhance; they never gate what the reader can see.

Why
A blank page for a second and a half on a slow phone is the page, for that reader. Agents, readers and search engines that do not run scripts see nothing.
The test
Load the page with JavaScript off, and on a throttled connection. Is the content there at once?

Broken by 2 findings, 2 open.

18 What a page says about the present is true now

Labels like 'edition of', 'currently', 'broken' and 'live' are dated or generated, and change when the facts do. A fixed problem is marked fixed, with the version.

Why
A page that describes a fixed bug as current, or labels today's front page with last week's date, tells the reader the rest may be stale too.
The test
Find every claim about now on the page. Is each dated? Is each still true?

Broken by 4 findings, 3 open.

19 A vault app works inside the host, not just on its own

An app is tested where readers open it: inside the vault host's sandboxed frame. Routing never assigns location.hash, storage goes through the host, and network reads come from the vault.

Why
The host frame behaves unlike a normal page. An app that works standalone can ship with every link dead and every saved note lost on reload.
The test
Open the published vault in the host, click every link, save something, reload. Check the console.

Broken by 3 findings, 3 open.