Heuristic Evaluation

What is Heuristic Evaluation?

Heuristic Evaluation is a usability inspection method where evaluators examine a user interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles (heuristics). Developed by Jakob Nielsen, this method involves having multiple evaluators independently review an interface against a set of established usability heuristics to identify potential usability problems.

The most commonly used heuristics are Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics, which include principles like visibility of system status, match between system and real world, user control and freedom, and error prevention. Evaluators rate the severity of violations and provide recommendations for improvement.

Why is Heuristic Evaluation Important?

Heuristic Evaluation is important because it's a quick, cost-effective way to identify usability problems early in the design process. It doesn't require users or elaborate testing setups, making it accessible for teams with limited resources. It can uncover a significant percentage of usability issues and provides actionable insights for improvement.

This method is particularly valuable for catching obvious usability violations before user testing, allowing teams to fix basic issues and focus user testing on more complex interaction problems. It also helps establish a common vocabulary for discussing usability within teams.

How to Conduct Heuristic Evaluation?

To conduct heuristic evaluation, recruit 3-5 evaluators with UX expertise, provide them with the interface to evaluate and a list of heuristics, have each evaluator independently review the interface, document violations with severity ratings, and consolidate findings to identify the most critical issues to address.

Best practices include using evaluators who understand the domain, providing clear evaluation criteria and severity scales, allowing sufficient time for thorough evaluation, focusing on specific user tasks or scenarios, and following up with actionable recommendations for addressing identified issues.