Murphy's Law in Human Interface (Revised)

By M. Yasumura with editing by Mark Chignell.
2004. 5. 26 updated.
  • Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
  • Help is available only when not needed.
  • It is harder to find an item in a well structured menu.
  • The importance of information in a manual is inversely related to the font size.
  • The harder the task, the less helpful the GUI is in performing that task.
  • The probability that a user will execute a particular action in an interface is directly proportional to the amount of damage that action will cause.
  • The UNDO operation is only available when you don't need it.
  • Books and manuals are always available except when they are most urgently needed.
  • Sophisticated functionality, or easy usability.
  • Enjoy the look and smell of a new computer, once you touch it there will be nothing but problems.
  • Once you get to know a system really well, it will change beyond all recognition.
  • The more buttons a machine has, the fewer you will use.

    • Some addition by Mark Chignell

    2004 5. 26 updated.
  • For maximum enjoyment, a computer should be approached with a quiet mind, even sleeping.
  • A window should only be dragged when it cannot be commanded
  • When many mice scurry, a deadline approaches
  • Lists should be short, menus even shorter.
  • Like police at a bank robbery, files always need backup
  • Beware of media files, they will expand to fill the world
  • Software agents are your worst enemies, they even look like them.
  • People will always confuse radio buttons with check boxes, it is the way of the world
  • Learning is preceded by great pain, and followed by disappointment
  • If computer interfaces are so easy, why donBc`QU (J we spend more time at the beach?

    • The following is the Original law by Murphy:

  • Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
  • Nothing is as easy as it looks.
  • Everything takes longer than you think.
  • If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
  • If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
  • If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
  • Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
  • If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
  • Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
  • Mother nature is a bitch.
  • It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
  • Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
  • Every solution breeds new problems.