Textbook of Usability

b. 1947, New York City · Long-time professor at the University of Maryland; founder of HCIL

Also known as: Ben Shneiderman, Benjamin Shneiderman

Ben Shneiderman founded the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland in 1983, one of the earliest dedicated HCI research groups, and has shaped the field ever since. He coined the term direct manipulation for interfaces in which users act on visible representations of objects with rapid, reversible, incremental operations and immediate visible feedback, the design pattern that defines modern graphical interfaces.

His textbook Designing the User Interface, first published in 1986 and now in its sixth edition, introduced the Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design: strive for consistency, seek universal usability, offer informative feedback, design dialogues to yield closure, prevent errors, permit easy reversal of actions, support internal locus of control, and reduce short-term memory load. The rules complement Nielsen's heuristics and are widely taught alongside them. His more recent work on Human-Centred AI (2022) extends the same design-evaluate-iterate methodology to AI systems.