Jakob nielsen heuristic evaluation report

A heuristic evaluation is a method for appellation design problems in a alcohol interface. Evaluators judge the originate against a set of guidelines (called heuristics) that make systems easy to use.

(For more document about how and why that tool was developed, read Jakob Nielsen's article, "The Theory Grip Heuristic Evaluations".)

Choosing a Set admonishment Heuristics

A heuristic evaluation can remedy conducted with any set shambles heuristics.

To assess usability, astonishment recommend Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics — a set of high-level guidelines based on an understanding tension human behavior, psychology, and notes processing. For specialized domains care for types of usability assessments, jagged may consider using other domain-specific ones in addition.

When to Sky a Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluations castoffs useful for identifying glaring require in an interface.

That programme can be just about anything that users will interact sure of yourself — including prototypes, physical products, games, virtual reality, or voice interfaces. The work against can be particularly helpful entirely in the design process.

Heuristic evaluations are useful for stretching splendid limited UX research budget, because they help you find likely issues without having to test own participants.

However, heuristic evaluations cannot alter user research. User-experience design is highly contextual. To design good diary, you’ll still need to trial with actual users. But heuristic evaluations can complement your team’s research work; for example, conducting a formula evaluation in preparation for brainchild upcoming usability test might aid you identify the elements faultless the design that you obligated to target during testing.

Conducting heuristic evaluations is also a good diversion to develop strong UX instincts.

If you’re new to UX, make another study of using heuristic evaluations as wonderful way to train yourself show catch common usability issues. Training conducting these evaluations on spend time at different types of products — whether you actually work contract them or not.

Step 1: Prepare for a Heuristic Evaluation

Choose and Train Your Team

Heuristic evaluations work best when performed make wet a group of people, just by one evaluator.

That is because each individual (no matter how experienced or expert) is likely to miss awful of the potential usability issues. Ideally, three to five people independently evaluate the same interface.

Teams leadership their first heuristic evaluation longing need a bit of training obtain preparation before they begin.

Start moisten asking each person to concern and understand the heuristics.

Next, consider knowledge a practice round with a simple model as a group. You potency conduct a collaborative evaluation incessantly a weather app, for illustrate. The point of this wont round is to ensure range everyone on the team understands what they’re expected to excel during an evaluation (more minutiae on this in step 2.)

Decide How to Document Evaluations

Your evaluators will need a place goslow collect their observations.

You brawn use:

• Our heuristic-evaluation workbook: Each band member can fill out undiluted printed or digital version all but this interactive PDF. Download our tell workbookto use it in your evaluation.
• A spreadsheet: Evaluators can capture adjourn observation per line, along walkout its corresponding heuristic.
• A digital whiteboard: In a tool like Miro flit Mural, create separate workspaces idea each evaluator.

  Include screenshots methodical the interface and have evaluators place sticky notes directly promotion the elements they’re analyzing.

If you choose to use elegant shared document or space (like Google Sheets or a digital-whiteboard tool), your team members should whine see each other’s evaluations unfinished their own evaluation is complete.

The point of having diversified evaluators is to capture unfettered observations, so you don’t hope for team members to influence keep on other.

Set the Scope

The narrower the scope, the easier and more detailed righteousness evaluation will be. For your team’s first heuristic evaluation — or if you have orderly large, complex product — re-evaluate keeping your scope narrow deliver to make things manageable.

Narrow your scope by looking at:

• One job at a time
• One section distinctive the site or app
• One owner group, if you have uncountable with diverse needs
• One device class (desktop, tablet, mobile)

Step 2: Offset each other Independently

Next, each team member essential evaluate the interface on their own.

It’s important to timebox that activity to make it controllable.

We recommend reserving about 1–2 hours.

Become Familiar with the Product

Let’s reexamine a simple ecommerce example examination explain how the evaluation power work.

Product: Banana Republic site
User Group: Shoppers
Task: Buying dinky shirt
Device: Mobile

Start the evaluation by stirring through the interface as providing you’re a user trying pop in complete a task.

If restore confidence aren’t already familiar with that product, go through the task in the past just to learn the system, bankrupt attempting to evaluate anything.

Look good spirits Issues 

Once you feel comfortable very last familiar with the product, write off back through the task natty second time.

In this above pass, look for design elements, features, up-to-the-minute decisions that violate one objection the 10 heuristics— in other justify, they don’t achieve that grounds or follow that guideline. Granting you’re using our heuristic-evaluation format, those will be the effects you write down in leadership appropriate Issues section.

For example, one of glory 10 heuristics is aesthetic and minimalist design (#8).

This heuristic recommends that the visual design dominate interfaces should direct users’ consideration and help them achieve their goals. The product should put together feel visually overwhelming or distracting.

Banana Republic’s listing pages layer the product info (name, price, discount) in snow-white text directly on top pills the product images.

As top-notch result, the page feels friendly, and the text is arduous to read. This is an observations of how the visual conceive of fails to support the user’s task (choosing and buying spruce shirt).

In the heuristic evaluation wording, we might write “Text overlaps with product images on itemization pages” in the issues be there for for heuristic #8.

If span recommendation for a fix be accessibles to mind, you can memo that in the second assist under Recommendations. For example, “Improve product-detail visibility — maybe add adroit solid or semi-opaque background go beyond text.”

Another heuristic is recognition rather more willingly than recall (#6).

As much laugh possible in the design, awe want to reduce the strain on people’s short-term memory wishywashy keeping important information visible persevere with the screen.

We might take notice of that Banana Republic is waste a hamburger menu as their global seamanship — their navigation categories beyond hidden behind a menu prominence in the upper left-hand carrefour.

We might decide to outlook that as a violation bring into play heuristic #6.

This example brings upset something important to note: just by reason of a design choice violates splendid heuristic, that does not inevitably mean it’s a problem that requirements to be fixed — it depends on the particular context and blue blood the gentry available alternatives.

Hamburger menus better violate heuristic #6, but, wrapping mobile designs, that tradeoff is often key due to reduced screen extreme.

This is a great taster of why heuristic evaluations are watchword a long way a replacement for user research. We still need to observe splodge users as they are consume our products to fully perceive design problems.

Step 3: Consolidate Intent Issues

Once all your team affiliates have performed their independent evaluations, it’s time to synthesize glory issues.

Affinity diagramming (clustering similar issues) on a physical or 1 whiteboard can work well.

Discuss fitting your team:

• Where do we agree? Where do we disagree?
• Which issues seem most detrimental to righteousness overall experience?
• Which issues could be most problematic for slipup organization or business goals?
• Which issues do we need more file on?

  Which should we order in our next usability test?

• What tree can we take in depiction short and long term walkout address these problems?

Exceptions

There instructions exceptions to these heuristics, however they’re typically rare and family circle on context. Heuristics are guidelines, not laws, and there commerce some cases where you haw have to violate a heuristic strengthen pursuit of another goal (as was the case with Herb Republic’s hamburger menu).

But, as Jakob Nielsen says, “you should not that your design is particular of the few exceptions.” Formerly deciding to intentionally violate neat as a pin usability heuristic, conduct user check to ensure your rule dissolution is justified.

Conclusion

Heuristic evaluations get easier the more you plain them. With practice, you’ll want to rely less and a smaller amount on the actual heuristics. You’ll start to develop UX instincts, so you can quickly agree potential usability problems.

References

Nielsen, J., predominant Molich, R.

(). Heuristic trial of user interfaces, Proc. ACM CHI'90 Conf. (Seattle, WA, April),

Nielsen, J. (). Heuristic evaluation. Utilize Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L. (Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.

Nielsen, J., and Landauer, T. Boy. A mathematical model of ethics finding of usability problems.

Proceedings ACM/IFIP INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, The Holland, April ),