In this lecture, we went over heuristic evaluations including the key principles, we also discussed the Nielson 10 usability heuristics. I had never heard of these before so I decided to take a further look into what these evaluations are and why they are important in UX design.

A heuristic evaluation is a method for identifying design problems in a user interface. Evaluators judge the design against a set of guidelines (called heuristics) that make systems easy to use. - Kate Moran and Kelley Gordon - Nielson Norman Group

The origin of the word heuristic comes from the Greek word “heuriskein”, meaning to find or to discover, which has the same root as eureka!

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The ten heuristics

  1. Visibility of system status
  2. Match between system and real-world
  3. User control and freedom
  4. Consistency and standards
  5. Error prevention
  6. recognition rather than recall
  7. Flexibility and efficiently of use
  8. Aesthetics and minimalist design
  9. Help users recognise diagnose and recover from errors
  10. Help and document

Severity rating

Heuristic evaluations is a usability inspection method where evaluations access a user interface against the usability principles. The severity rating is used to prioritise issues identified during the evaluation.