Running a heuristic evaluation

In a heuristic evaluation, a few reviewers check a design against a set of heuristics. The example shows four steps:

• Inspect independently: each reviewer checks the design on their own.
• Record issues: note each problem and the heuristic it breaks.
• Rate severity: judge each issue by its impact, how often it happens and how hard it is to work around.
• Prioritize fixes: combine everyone’s findings and fix the most serious issues first.

Nielsen’s ten heuristics are one popular set; others include Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules. Choose the set that fits your product.

A heuristic review is quick and cheap, but it does not replace testing with real users. Use it to find likely problems, then confirm them with research.