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Human interface guidelines
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<p>Human interface guidelines (HIG) are <a href="/facts/Software_development/UUfsAaYY">software development</a> documents which offer application developers a set of recommendations. Their aim is to improve the experience for the users by making application interfaces more intuitive, learnable, and consistent. Most guides limit themselves to defining a common <a href="/facts/Look_and_feel/Uo3RcETT">look and feel</a> for applications in a particular <a href="/facts/Desktop_environment/VXBpMWnG">desktop environment</a>. The guides enumerate specific policies. Policies are sometimes based on <a href="/facts/Usability_study/prsYgc00">usability studies</a> of <a href="/facts/Human%E2%80%93computer_interaction/EkmIxGCx">human–computer interaction</a>, but most reflect the platform developers' preferences. </p><p>The central aim of a HIG is to create a consistent experience across the environment (generally an <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating system</a> or <a href="/facts/Desktop_environment/VXBpMWnG">desktop environment</a>), including the <a href="/facts/Application_software/YQuj7Kog">applications</a> and other tools being used. This means both applying the same visual design and creating consistent access to and behaviour of common elements of the interface – from simple ones such as <a href="/facts/Button_(computing)/TAJ36ebs">buttons</a> and <a href="/facts/Icon_(computing)/habCR8KJ">icons</a> up to more complex constructions, such as <a href="/facts/Dialog_box/VgWHgrE2">dialog boxes</a>. </p><p>HIGs are recommendations and advice meant to help developers create better applications. Developers sometimes intentionally choose to break them if they think that the guidelines do not fit their application, or <a href="/facts/Usability_testing/prsYgc00">usability testing</a> reveals an advantage in doing so. But in turn, the organization publishing the HIG might withhold endorsement of the application. <a href="/facts/Mozilla_Firefox/xez2zv8H">Mozilla Firefox</a>'s user interface, for example, goes against the <a href="/facts/GNOME/EFMNBmpR">GNOME</a> project's HIG, which is one of the project's main arguments for including <a href="/facts/GNOME_Web/0hIb10Th">GNOME Web</a> instead of Firefox in the GNOME distribution. </p>