Questions to self-critique your designs

I have found this set of questions quite handy to critique designs and distance yourself from the solution.

• Is this going to help the user save time and effort on the task that matters to them?
• Is this easy for the user to learn and use without any support?
• Is this intuitive and easy to understand based on what they already know?
• How much effort do they have to invest so they can learn new concepts and patterns?
• Is it helping them be better at their tasks?
• Is it consistent with existing interaction patterns that are familiar to users?
• Does it seamlessly integrate into the user’s task flow?
• Is there sufficient guidance to understand and discover the design intention?
• Is the interaction predictable?

Answering these while you design your products and services can help deliver a solution that resonates with user-friendliness.