Usability Standard 6:
Help the User Be Successful

Make objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.13

"[Users would] much rather be successful than knowledgeable."¹⁴ One traditional approach to software design is to mirror the application's inner workings in the user interface: one button per function, with commands and processes that mirror internal data structures and algorithms. On the web, this approach results in overly complicated search functions that require users to remember Boolean operators. Or it might result in an information architecture that follows the company org chart: each vice president gets a button on the home page.

The user doesn't know or care about the search engine's nifty algorithms or the company's internal politics. The user wants to accomplish a task quickly and easily.