For the usability method heuristic evaluation a few usability experts gather around an interface prototype or website and evaluate whether each page and control follows established usability guidelines or usability patterns. Compared to the usability method expert review, where the experts feedback is rather open, in a heuristic evaluation the usability check is based on a list of established usability design patterns (aka. heuristics). How to conduct a Heuristic Evaluation In a heuristic evaluation, usually around 3 usability experts, which are in the best case specialists from the field of human computer interaction (HCI), but in the more common case fellow designer with an avocation in usability and user centered design, judge all elements on a website/interface, the structure and workflows, write down notes and prioritize them by impact on the overall user experience. The result is a usability report that presents an actionable check list of aspects to be solved by severity sometimes even altered by alternative design solutions. Advantages of a Heuristic Evaluation compared to other Usability Methods If you are a web designer or information architect, you will probably know your peers and can easily gather 3 friends to review your site in a heuristic evaluation, checking with the latest usability patterns. This makes it rather cost effective, since you can in turn provide feedback in a heuristic evaluation for their screen designs. As there is no installation or tech setup required, it is easy to implement too and a heuristic evaluation can be obtained early on in the design and planning process. Applying heuristic evaluations and reviewing conformity to established guidelines in the early stage of prototyping keeps your project within budget and avoids re-designing of already detailed screenshots or even re-programming of code. With such a heuristic evaluation, studies have shown that around 90% of all usability bugs on a website can be traced. Limitations of Heuristic Evaluations In a heuristic evaluation, experts are sometimes overly critical and provide only feedback on the problematic aspects of the interface, as this usability method really focuses on mistakes and not on overall feedback (positive and negative). Although experienced in the field of (interface) design, your experts need to have at least some experience with heuristic evaluation and must consider things like having the appropriate target audience in mind when judging the design of your site or interface. And, of course, this is a purely qualitative usability method and can only provide a guide line based on usability best practices but does not substitute (rather complement) quantitative user tracking when the project is finally in use. Conclusion about the Usability Method Heuristic Evaluation Heuristic evaluations are the perfect usability method for testing and reviewing design concepts in a very early stage of a project (e.g. on a wireframe basis). Thus the feedback comes at the right time (before detailed design or even programming has started), still being possible to be considered in the next design phase. And with a heuristic evaluation you collect a lot of helpful insights to create customer centric design with rather limited effort. Readings and Recommendations To perfectly enable heuristic evaluations in an early stage of your project, interfaces should be sketched with a wireframing tool. Some of them even have the technical solution integrated to conduct heuristic evaluations remote via internet. Just google for things like usability wireframe tool .
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