Overview

Acceptance Criteria are the specific behaviors or conditions that must be met for a Use Case to be considered complete. They are the measurable outcomes you evaluate against.

What Makes Good Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria should be:

Specific - Describe exactly what the user can do or see
Measurable - You should be able to verify it with a Pass/Fail
Observable - Evaluators can test it directly
Independent - Each criterion stands on its own

Structure

Each acceptance criterion is a single statement that describes one behavior:

Acceptance Criterion: A user can view a list of all available pizza types
Acceptance Criterion: A user can add a selected pizza type to their cart
Acceptance Criterion: A user can select toppings by clicking on each topping image

How AC Relates to Guidelines and Scoring

Acceptance Criteria and Guidelines work together during evaluations:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Acceptance Criteria    │  Guidelines                   │
├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│  WHAT to evaluate       │  HOW to evaluate              │
│  "User can view cart"   │  "Is the cart accessible?"    │
│                         │  "Does it follow WCAG 2.1?"   │
│                         │  "Is feedback immediate?"     │
└─────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

Acceptance Criteria define the behaviors your design must support
Guidelines provide the standards used to score those behaviors

During an evaluation, each guideline question gets a Pass/Fail/N/A. Those results roll up into category scores and an overall score.

Scoring Flow

Acceptance Criteria (behaviors)
        ↓
Evaluated against Guidelines (standards)
        ↓
Pass/Fail per question
        ↓
Category scores (e.g., Accessibility: 75%)
        ↓
Overall Flow score (e.g., 82%)

Example

Use Case: Add pizza toppings

Acceptance Criteria:
├── User can view available toppings after selecting a pizza type
├── Selecting "View toppings" opens a modal listing all toppings
├── User can select multiple toppings simultaneously
├── Selected toppings are visually indicated (checkmark, highlight)
└── User can remove toppings from their selection

Each of these criteria will be evaluated against your chosen Guideline Set during the evaluation process.

Best Practices

Keep it simple - One behavior per criterion
Use "user can" language - Focus on observable user actions
Avoid ambiguity - Be precise about what should happen
Align with Guidelines - Write criteria that can be meaningfully evaluated against your guideline questions
Refine during design - Update acceptance criteria as mockups and wireframes become more detailed

Acceptance Criteria