Improve usability using VIMM Model

When applying usability concepts in actual design project, layout or creating any sort of interactions , practically the VIMM model has been the most useful and best approach for me and it has also helped supporting my design decision logic when discussing mocks with internal and external stakeholders.

About me

Hi guys, before going ahead and reading this article, i would like to give a brief introduction about myself. My name is Mukesh Advani, residing in New Delhi and i am a usability analyst, my core experience lies in understanding the business / design requirements and craft out interactions to optimise usability and creating a better product keeping the end users in mind.

How did i learn about this model ?

The concept of the model was introduced to me along with some other fundamental usability principles when i was pursing my CUA course from Human Factors International.

What is VIMM Model ?

VIMM stands for Visual, Intellectual, Memory and Motor testing. These four simple concepts covered in the model, account for 80% of the usability issues.

The VIMM Model is a way to focus on how usable your product or website is for a user. It dives deep into understanding which aspect comes naturally to the user and what requires a decent amount of work or thought process from his end.

The end goal of using this model is to ‘reduce the load’ of the user in these four key areas:

1. Visual load
2. Intellectual load
3. Memory load
4. Motor load

“Does a particular interaction involve high demands on the user’s memory?”

“Does it include a lot of motor work because the user has to switch back and forth from a mouse to the keyboard?”

VIMM answers all your questions about how a user is likely to interact with your product, helping you optimize it for ease-of-use. The model describes the four ways we make users think too much or work too hard while interacting with an interface.

Simply put, VIMM is the smartest way to optimize your user experience.

Lets break down the concept…

Visual Load

Visual load refers to visual elements in the designs which forces the user to put more effort in visually identifying the element.

Optimise visual comprehension by avoiding:

• Too much clutter on the page
• Long content that isn’t “chunked” with adequate spacing
• Poor alignments discarding principles of eye tracking
• Busy backgrounds that serve no purpose
• Too many buttons, colors and fonts
• Low contrast

Intellectual Load

This refers to the extraneous thinking and decision-making done by the user due to poorly organised, inconsistent layout and functionality.

Don’t make users think

Simplify decision making by avoiding:

• Inconsistent site structure and navigation
• Missing navigational way-finders like page/section labels
• Objects with poor visual affordance and significance (Is that a button or a tab? Is that thing clickable? What does that icon mean?)
• Content (graphics/copy) that lacks context
• Poor instructions due to bad copywriting
• Lack of system / error feedback
• Controls that don’t function as they were designed to function

Memory Load

This refers to the effort made by the user regarding the retention of the information which gets mapped in user short and long term memory when performing any task or understanding information.

To reduce memory load :

• Don’t make the user memorise workflows; instead make them obvious
• Increase visibility of relevant information when having task based approach
• Always make it painfully obvious where the user is in the site hierarchy and/or within a task or workflow
• Visibility of the objects of interest to the user also helps to promote recognition

Motor Load

This refers to physical movements that are too difficult or too frequent and degrade the user experience.

Minimise movement and interactions by avoiding :

• Excessive clicking and typing
• Excessive device switching (Forms are the typical offenders here: mouse for the drop-down, keyboard for the text field, back to mouse for a radio button, back to keyboard for another text entry, no tab index.)
• Long distances to very small targets, like small icons or calls-to-action (Fitt’s Law)
• Requiring very precise hover positions to activate menus and buttons.

Hope this brief introduction to the VIMM model will help you better understand the concept of usability and optimise it to create better interactions.

If you find this article useful, do connect with me on Linkedin and share your valuable feedback / inputs.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mukesh-advani-52101a75/

Thanks