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Plate HEUR·002 · HeuristicGrid A1 · Rev. 2026-08-14

Match Between System and the Real World

Use the words, concepts and order that your users already have, not the ones your database has.

HeuristicExpert heuristicFoundational

Definition

Nielsen's second heuristic. The system should speak the user's language, with words and concepts familiar to them, and follow real-world conventions so information appears in a natural and expected order.

Expert heuristic. A review criterion developed by practitioners. Useful and widely taught, but evaluated by judgement rather than measurement.

On this plate
  1. 1Definition
  2. 2Internal vocabulary leaks constantly
  3. 3Where mismatch shows up
  4. 4Vocabulary swaps that repay themselves
  5. 5In practice
  6. 6Local chart
  7. 7Sources
  8. 8Continue from here

Reach for this when

  • Naming navigation, objects and actions.
  • Writing error and empty state copy.
  • Ordering the steps of a flow.
  • Naming an object that the team and the customer describe with different words.

Common mistakes

  • Deciding vocabulary in a workshop instead of from research.
  • Localising language but not formats.
  • Using icons alone for concepts with no shared metaphor.

Internal vocabulary leaks constantly

Product teams name things for the model: entity, record, workspace object, principal, tenant. Users name things for the job: file, invoice, teammate, folder. When the interface uses the internal name, every user has to translate on every encounter.

The fix is not to dumb language down. It is to use the vocabulary the user already uses for that concept, which you find by listening to support calls and research sessions rather than by writing a glossary in a meeting.

Where mismatch shows up

  • Error messages containing status codes or internal exception names.
  • Navigation labelled after the team that owns the feature rather than the job it does.
  • Date and number formats that follow the server locale rather than the user's.
  • Icons borrowed from a metaphor the audience no longer has, such as a floppy disk for save, which survives only because it is now a convention in its own right.
  • Sort orders that follow database insertion order rather than any order a person would expect.

Do

  • Name things the way users name them in support tickets and interviews.
  • Follow real-world sequence: address before payment, not the reverse.
  • Localise formats for dates, numbers, currency, names and addresses.
  • Use plain words for destructive actions so the consequence is unambiguous.

Do not

  • Expose internal identifiers or system states in user-facing copy.
  • Invent brand words for standard actions.
  • Assume a metaphor is universal. Test icons without labels before shipping them without labels.

Vocabulary swaps that repay themselves

The internal word is almost always shorter and almost always wrong. These are the swaps that come up most.

Internal wordWhat readers say
Entity, record, objectThe thing it actually is: invoice, patient, order
Deactivate, soft deleteArchive, or hide
ValidateCheck, or confirm
Sync errorNot saved yet, with the reason
ProvisionSet up
AuthenticateSign in

In practice

  1. i.

    Naming the object

    B2B software

    A product that called records 'entities' in the interface generated a steady stream of support questions. Renaming them to the noun customers already used removed the questions with no functional change.

  2. ii.

    Real-world sequence in checkout

    Ecommerce

    Delivery choice before payment matches how people think about buying. Reversing it produces back-navigation and re-entry, and back-navigation in checkout is expensive.

  3. iii.

    The word that meant three things

    Internal vocabulary

    Account meant the billing relationship to finance, the login to engineering and the company to sales. All three shipped into the interface, and every support conversation started by establishing which one was meant.

Local chart

HEUR·002 · Region I · Grid A1

This entry and the entries it is stated to connect with. Each line is labelled with what the connection means.

Curse of KnowledgeBIAS·008 · WHY THIS WORKSMental ModelsMOD·001 · WHY THIS WORKSCard SortingRES·005 · APPLIED THROUGHInformation ArchitectureRES·015 · APPLIED THROUGHIconographyFND·050 · APPLIED THROUGHContent DesignWRT·004 · APPLIED THROUGHError MessagesWRT·002 · APPLIED THROUGHInternationalizationWRT·006 · APPLIED THROUGHMicrocopyWRT·001 · APPLIED THROUGHVoice and ToneWRT·003 · APPLIED THROUGHFixing a Search That Returned NothingCASE·006 · PRACTICAL EXAMPLEConceptual ModelTERM·010 · SHORT DEFINITION

Sources

Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.

  1. [1]

    10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

    J. Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group, 1994, revised 2020

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Applies when you are designing

A Search ExperienceAn Enterprise WorkflowNavigation

Why this works

The reasoning this entry rests on.

Applied through

Where this shows up as a concrete interface decision.

Practical example

A worked decision where this was the deciding factor.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.