Who We Are

What is a Heuristic Evalution
(and why would I want one?)

A heuristic evaluation is an expert analysis of the usability of a website or product. Despite its big-money name, it is an inexpensive technique.

Heuristics are mental shortcuts or assumptions that help us quickly make sense of the world. We assume that someone dressed in a suit on a weekday morning is headed to work. We see a woman running behind a baby carriage, take note of her jogging clothes and decide that she is the baby's mother – not a kidnapper.

Jakob Neilsen's heuristics are the most well-known, but others exist.

How does it work? The expert uses your website or software product and looks for violations of the guidelines. For instance, hundreds of ad-packed pages would fail the heuristic ‘Aesthetic and Minimalist Design’.

Does it Work? Yes and no. Even highly trained appraisers will differ in the number and types of usability problems they find. Evaluators may have trouble uncovering domain-specific issues. And some issues turn out to be red herrings - testing has shown that as many of 50% of problems identified don’t actually affect the product’s usability.

So why should I use it? A heuristic evaluation bypasses the effort needed to conduct usability tests and skips straight to the report phase. It is a great way to quickly and cheaply point out a number of serious usability issues. Use it early in the design process to uncover some blatant problems and start a usability plan, but be aware that testing may uncover additional, and possibly more severe, issues.

You can learn more about heuristic evaluations and other topics in Websosmart's 2-day course in User Experience Design and Usability Testing, geared to business and programming professionals.

Email info@websosmart.com or call (404) 313-1500 to register.