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SUMMARY
Purpose: Interaction Design Principles guide the creation of intuitive, usable interfaces by applying established behavioural and cognitive psychology heuristics.
Design Thinking Phase: Prototype
Time: Ongoing during design + 1–2 hour design reviews
Difficulty: ⭐⭐
When to use:When prototyping high-fidelity UI flowsDuring heuristic evaluations and usability auditsTo onboard junior designers with foundational design guidance
What it is
Interaction Design Principles are a set of foundational guidelines used to create usable, accessible, and consistent digital experiences. Commonly grounded in Nielsen’s heuristics and behavioural design theory, these principles help teams design with users’ mental models in mind—reducing friction and enhancing usability.
📺 Video by NNgroup. Embedded for educational reference.
Why it matters
Interaction design is where product functionality meets human behaviour. Without applying interaction design principles, even well-researched products can end up frustrating or confusing users. These principles ensure UX teams translate research insights into consistent, coherent design decisions that reflect users' expectations, mental models, and environmental context.
When to use
- When assessing UI consistency during design critiques
- To inform design system components and interaction patterns
- As a rapid heuristic check before usability testing
Benefits
- Rich Insights: Helps uncover user needs that aren’t visible in metrics.
- Flexibility: Works across various project types and timelines.
- User Empathy: Deepens understanding of behaviours and motivations.
How to use it
Apply interaction design principles during both proactive design and reactive audits:
- Step 1: Review the current flow or UI component against each principle—e.g. “Visibility of system status” or “Match between system and the real world”.
- Step 2: Identify alignment or misalignment scenarios—where expectations don't match the interaction model.
- Step 3: Annotate flows to flag friction points caused by overlooked principles. Suggest specific UI adjustments (e.g. add feedback, reduce steps, clarify labels).
- Step 4: Consolidate into design documentation or system-wide recommendations for scalable impact.
Example Output
Heuristic audit – Payment Failure State (Fictional example):
- Visibility of system status: No clear confirmation if payment is processing. Add real-time loader or status update.
- Error Prevention: “Confirm Card Details” button looks too similar to “Pay Now”. Creates risk of misstep. Suggest redesign with clear distinctions.
- Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors: Failure message says “Something went wrong.” It’s vague. Add specific guidance: “Your card was declined—please check with your bank or try another method.”
Common Pitfalls
- Focusing only on visual polish while skipping usability heuristics
- Misapplying principles by treating them as binary checkboxes, instead of spectrum-based cues
- Using principles retroactively after build, rather than early during design definition
10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Interaction Design Principles – UX/UI Edition
How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)
Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.
C.S.I.R. stands for:
- Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
- Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
- Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
- Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)
Level up your career with smarter AI prompts.Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence.First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.
Prompt Template 1: “Evaluate UI Against Interaction Principles:”
Evaluate UI Against Interaction Principles:
Context: You are a senior product designer doing heuristic analysis of a checkout flow.
Specific Info: The flow includes 6 steps across mobile screens, with frequent cart abandonment reported at payment.
Intent: Use interaction design principles to identify where the interface may break user expectations or hinder usability.
Response Format: Provide an annotated list of heuristics applied to each step, including risk factors and improvement opportunities.
If flow details are too general, ask which UI elements or microcopy feel ambiguous to users.
Suggest one follow-up question to guide prioritisation of fixes.
Prompt Template 2: “Generate Interaction Design Checklist for New Feature Launch:”
Generate Interaction Design Checklist for New Feature Launch:
Context: You are a UX lead preparing a QA-based design review before launch of a file versioning feature.
Specific Info: The team has added multi-step undo/redo actions plus revision history access from the settings menu.
Intent: Ensure key interaction principles have been covered before sign-off.
Response Format: Return a checklist categorised by principle (e.g. error prevention, consistency, user control).
Ask for clarification on user expectations if versioning behaviour contradicts standard mental models.
Suggest phrasing test questions a researcher might ask in usability testing.
Prompt Template 3: “Identify Mismatch Between UI and User Mental Models:”
Identify Mismatch Between UI and User Mental Models:
Context: You're a product designer working on a redesigned calendar interface for enterprise teams.
Specific Info: Users have reported confusion between recurring meetings and linked tasks.
Intent: Uncover areas where the interaction patterns differ from users' expectations or norms.
Response Format: Provide a two-column table showing current vs expected mental models, and suggestions.
Ask which workflows are most error-prone for new users without training.
Propose a low-fidelity test or workaround for complex logic.
Prompt Template 4: “Redesign Interaction to Support Error Recovery:”
Redesign Interaction to Support Error Recovery:
Context: You're auditing a form submission flow for rejected job applications.
Specific Info: Users receive a “Your application could not be submitted” notice with no further detail.
Intent: Improve usability and reduce frustration by designing a more helpful error recovery experience.
Response Format: Return revised copy, UI change proposals, and rationale mapped to interaction principles.
Ask if we want standard fallback modals or inline error messaging.
Recommend what data we should log to learn more over time.
Prompt Template 5: “Conduct Principle-Based Critique of Figma Prototype:”
Conduct Principle-Based Critique of Figma Prototype:
Context: You are reviewing a prototype for a collaborative note-taking app ahead of stakeholder presentation.
Specific Info: The flow includes tagging, sharing, and delete actions—all accessible via swipe gestures.
Intent: Ensure interaction elements meet best practice for discoverability, feedback, and affordance.
Response Format: Return feedback by screen element and principle category.
Ask about platform conventions (iOS/Android) if unclear.
Propose animation or microinteraction improvements if relevant.
Prompt Template 6: “Reverse-Engineer Why Users Drop Off Mid-Interaction:”
Reverse-Engineer Why Users Drop Off Mid-Interaction:
Context: You are analysing analytics for a multi-stage profile completion wizard.
Specific Info: 74% of users abandon the journey between steps 2 and 3 (custom preferences).
Intent: Generate hypotheses using interaction heuristics as a lens to explain the behaviour.
Response Format: Return a list of up to 5 hypotheses with the matching principle and supporting rationale.
Ask what friction patterns have been validated with research.
Suggest metrics to test hypotheses in a follow-up A/B.
Prompt Template 7: “Draft Interaction-Optimised Microcopy for Key Touchpoints:”
Draft Interaction-Optimised Microcopy for Key Touchpoints:
Context: You are the UX writer refining key moments in onboarding of a budgeting app.
Specific Info: Moments include empty state, goal creation, and first completed goal.
Intent: Write microcopy that reduces ambiguity and improves confidence using interaction principles.
Response Format: Provide text examples, the principle behind it, and tone guidelines.
Ask which emotions are most important to support at each moment.
Offer tone shifts depending on user segment (e.g. young adult, freelancer).
Prompt Template 8: “Map Interaction Failures to Design System Gaps:”
Map Interaction Failures to Design System Gaps:
Context: You're documenting inconsistencies across different modals and notifications =in a large-scale platform product.
Specific Info: Issues involve error confirmation modals, overly long snackbars, and CTA hierarchy.
Intent: Highlight root-cause issues that stem from weak or absent design system rules.
Response Format: List each example, affected principle, and proposed system addition.
Ask if usage guidelines exist but are poorly enforced.
Recommend ideal ownership for systemic fixes (e.g. content, design ops).
Prompt Template 9: “Score a Flow Against Interaction Heuristics (1–5 Scale):”
Score a Flow Against Interaction Heuristics (1–5 Scale):
Context: You are preparing a usability review of a live flow for mobile check deposits in a banking app.
Specific Info: There are five core heuristics being tracked over five steps.
Intent: Rate strength of principle alignment and flag lowest-performing areas.
Response Format: Matrix with steps as rows, heuristics as columns, scores from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), and notes.
Ask which metrics or heuristics matter most to business KPIs.
Suggest a visualisation for leadership wrap-up.
Prompt Template 10: “Recommend Interaction Principle Training Exercises for a UX Team:”
Recommend Interaction Principle Training Exercises for a UX Team:
Context: You’re organising a learning session for mid-level designers unfamiliar with interaction heuristics.
Specific Info: Want team to learn by doing, avoid theory-only formats, and tie back to your current SaaS product.
Intent: Recommend exercises, grouped by principle, using your real customer scenarios.
Response Format: List 3–5 exercises, each with objective, materials needed, and facilitation notes.
Ask if we want remote-friendly formats or in-person interaction.
Propose debrief round for improved alignment across teams.
Recommended Tools
- Contrast – Accessibility checker for design principles
- UX Check – Chrome extension for heuristic evaluation
- Figma – Apply component-level interaction logic consistently across products
- Framer – Test and iterate interactions in high fidelity
Learn More
- NNGroup: UX Research & Design Articles
- Interaction Design Foundation – Topics
- Google Design Sprint Kit
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