Frame 1: Minimise usability risk
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Spec: descriptive guidance, not a checkable rule.
It carries no forbidden and instead pair, and no `jig check` detector applies to it directly.
Section: Principles
Group: Frames

**Ask: who could struggle with this, and why?**

Design decisions are risk decisions. Almost every appealing choice carries a risk that somebody finds it harder to use:

| The appealing thing | The risk |
| --- | --- |
| Thin, light-grey text | Unreadable with low vision, in sunlight, on a poor screen |
| Icons without labels | Meaning unavailable to anyone who does not know the glyph |
| Coloured heading text | Reads as a link; invites a click that does nothing |
| A subtle, borderless control | Not recognised as interactive |
| Placeholder instead of label | Disappears exactly when it is needed |

The risk is rarely to the median user. It falls on people with reduced vision, low computer literacy, limited dexterity or reduced cognitive capacity — and on ordinary users in bad conditions, which is most conditions. You will usually not know who is on the other side, so design for the widest range you can.

**Use it like this:** for any decision no rule covers, name who could struggle and why. If the answer is uncomfortable, take the safer option. If the risk is real and recurring, it is a new rule — add it to `00`.

**Floor:** WCAG 2.1 level AA. Meeting AA is the starting point, not the achievement.