HCI.TOP
Design Guidelines

HCI Design Guidelines

Bilingual design guidelines across 26 interaction domains — voice, gesture, eye tracking, in-vehicle, XR, agentic UX and more. Each domain ships principles, numbered rules, and behavioral design tokens, all deep-linkable.

26 domains · 912 rules

Agentic UX

1 domainsUX for AI agents: intent, authorization, oversight and handoff
P01Agentic UX Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let users state intent clearly, get requests actually carried out, see results plainly, and make changes readily — and be able to judge whether a task has truly completed; and make the operating mechanism behind that promise both designable and testable.

MUST 34SHOULD 8

Devices & Contexts

10 domainsFrom pocket to cockpit to factory floor — interaction constrained by environment and co-present people
MC02Mobile Context Interaction Design GuidelinesLet people still understand the next step, keep the work they have already done, and resume at the right moment while attention, hand capability, and environment keep changing.

unleveled 13

D03Cross-Device Interaction Design SpecificationFor designers and engineers: let users recognize the same thing across devices, pick up the same task where they left it, trust the states they see — and be interrupted only once.

MUST 30SHOULD 7

WD04Wearable Device Interaction Design GuidelinesLet the wearer know whether the device is available, what it is doing, and whether the data can be trusted, and let them keep control of their own tasks and data after removing the device, charging it, disconnecting, or switching devices.

unleveled 14

R05XR Experience Design GuidelinesIn tracking, reality overlay, and immersion, keep position trustworthy, operation controllable, and the body always with a way back.

MUST 43SHOULD 6

VH06In-Vehicle HMI Design GuidelinesFor designers, human-factors engineers, and vehicle HMI engineers: make every interaction in the car completable without taking the eyes off the road for long, interruptible at any moment and resumable from where it was interrupted; make safety-related functions like defrosting, hazard warning, wipers, and lighting reachable without hunting through menus first; make driving-critical information appear where the driver is already looking.

MUST 30SHOULD 5

A07Automated Driving Human-Machine Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers, human factors engineers, and systems engineers: let the driver know at all times who is currently driving, how far this system can drive, and when it will be their turn; let every transfer of control have a budget, a basis, and an end state; let there be an already-defined safe destination when the system fails, rather than handing the wheel back to a person who has not had time to prepare.

MUST 29SHOULD 7

IH08Industrial HMI Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: when the interface stands behind a production plant that is actually running, let a trained operator on continuous shift read the process state, notice anomalies, tell whether the numbers on screen still count, and, when necessary, safely put a hand on the controls.

MUST 28SHOULD 8

R09Robot Interaction Design GuidelinesLet people know what the robot is doing, what it will do next, and when their participation is needed; let people change tasks, stop actions, and end the relationship; let the robot's body, voice, and interface jointly honor these promises.

MUST 31SHOULD 4

U10Ubiquitous Computing and Intelligent Environments Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: once a device is embedded in the room a person occupies, shared by more than one person, and capable of moving on its own, keep the switch on the wall always effective, let people know who made this happen right now, and let them stop it on the spot at any time.

MUST 35SHOULD 5

C11Multi-User Collaboration and Social Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: when two or more people work on the same thing, let each person know what the others are doing without being surveilled, keep one person's input from being silently swallowed by another's operation, and make sure "I undo" always undoes only the step I made.

MUST 35SHOULD 5

Input Modalities

8 domainsVoice, gesture, gaze, touch and affect — body and state as input
V12Voice Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let the system hear accurately, let users interrupt at any time, let speech be short enough to remember, let what's forgotten be askable again, let the identity behind a voice be unambiguous, let those present know what the microphone is doing, and always keep a path open that can get things done without speaking.

MUST 41SHOULD 6

G13Mid-Air Gesture Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let the system clearly judge what counts as input, let users know which state they are in right now, and keep recognition uncertainty from turning into irreversible consequences.

MUST 27SHOULD 12

E14Eye-Tracking Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let "looking" remain looking, and let "selecting" truly be selecting; let users know where the system believes they are looking, what the system did based on that, and where that data goes — and let them still complete tasks when they cannot or do not want to use their eyes.

MUST 25SHOULD 6

H15Haptic Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: make haptics felt, recognized, on time, degradable, and turn-off-able, and do not treat the user's body as an output channel that can be occupied at will.

MUST 26MUST NOT 1SHOULD 8

M16Motion-Sensing Game Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let users know what they need to do, that they can do it, that it is judged accurately, and that they can stop at any time — and let them not be injured or shamed for playing a long time.

MUST 36SHOULD 8

S17Spatial Interaction Design GuidelinesLet people know where objects are, who is selected, what is being changed, and let them be able to find their way back to their own work.

MUST 32SHOULD 4

MM18Multimodal Fusion Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: when a single input or a single output is jointly composed of two or more channels, let "this" point precisely, let waiting have a boundary, let conflicts be adjudicable and revocable, let the same intent be executed only once, and let the task still be completable when a channel is unavailable.

MUST 26SHOULD 8

E19Affective Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: when a product reads human emotion, or expresses emotion itself, let people keep the final say over the interpretation of their own feelings, keep control over the relationship, and make "the user is doing well" — not "the user cannot leave" — the verifiable measure of success.

MUST 29SHOULD 5

Interface & Information

7 domainsHow objects, layouts and information stay legible and operable — usable by everyone, worthy of trust
UI20General GUI and Direct Manipulation Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: a graphical interface lets people believe "what I see is the thing itself, and if I move it, it changes." These guidelines do not specify what controls look like, but the conditions that must be fulfilled for that belief to hold — objects can be identified, consequences can be foreseen, changes can be undone, states can be said true or false, the task can still be completed with a different hand, and what has not yet been submitted does not disappear.

MUST 31SHOULD 7

R21Responsive Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let users still read content, complete tasks, and continue from where they just were, as the window, container, orientation, and input environment change.

MUST 19SHOULD 5

A22Adaptive Information Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: let users see enough relevant information for their current task, and still be able to find, understand, and complete it after the information changes.

MUST 21SHOULD 3

VZ23Information Visualization and Analytical Interaction Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: a chart lets a person believe that "the difference I see is the difference in the data, and the action I take on the chart is an action taken on the data." These guidelines do not prescribe which chart type to pick or which color palette to pair — they specify the conditions that must hold for those two beliefs to be warranted: the encoding must be reversible back to the data, the basis of that data must be statable, an estimate must not pose as a certainty, the conditions currently imposed on the view must be visible and removable, the process that led to this point must be retained, and someone who cannot see color must still get the same facts.

MUST 35SHOULD 7

N24Attention and Notification Interaction Design GuidelinesMake what is worth knowing visible in time, give what needs handling a clear next step, and let users return to their own work once they are done.

unleveled 14

AC25Accessibility and Inclusive Design GuidelinesLet users obtain information, complete operations, understand consequences, express decisions, and continue after an error or interruption. Accessibility is the quality of a complete task, not an add-on toolbar or a checklist score.

unleveled 55

S26Privacy and Usable Security Design GuidelinesFor designers and engineers: these guidelines are not about whether a product has written a privacy policy, but about whether the user can understand what their data is being used for, whether they can actually refuse, whether they can get it back, whether they can still get into their own account after losing their phone, and how much the person sitting next to them will see.

MUST 31SHOULD 7