Design Heuristics For In-Crisis Users

Abstract

Any interface designed for in-crisis users needs to address their state of mind and physiological arousal. However, to date no clear guidance exists for the specific needs of in-crisis users. An opportunity to redesign a regional domestic abuse website inspired us to adapt Nielsen’s 10 heuristics by including three heuristics for in-crisis users, specifically domestic abuse victims. Given the lack of research we used existing research to address users’ cognitive and motor processing impairments during high anxiety and arousal. To see how well current domestic abuse websites follow these heuristics, we evaluated a pseudo-randomly selected set of 98 domestic abuse helplines. The result showed overall poor results. Irrelevant information, poor readability, and failure to highlight crucial information were among the main contributors for the poor assessment. The data illustrates the need for improved design guidelines to create a safe and effective option for in-crisis users.