Principle of least astonishment

The principle of least astonishment (POLA) (alternatively "principle/law/rule of least astonishment/surprise") applies to user interface and software design, from the ergonomics standpoint.

A typical formulation of the principle is: "If a necessary feature has a high astonishment factor, it may be necessary to redesign the feature."

In general engineering design contexts, the principle can be taken to mean that a component of a system should behave in a manner consistent with how users of that component are likely to expect it to behave; that is, users should not be astonished at the way it behaves.

See also

• DWIM (Do What I Mean)
• Convention over configuration
• Human interface guidelines
• List of software development philosophies
• Look and feel
• Occam's razor
• WYSIWYG

External links

• Principle of least astonishment