Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic Evaluation is a usability inspection method in which small teams of expert evaluators examine an interface and judge its compliance with established usability principles (heuristics). Developed by Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich in 1990, this method is rapid and low-cost, identifying 60–90% of usability problems with as few as 3–5 evaluators. Nielsen's Ten Usability Heuristics—visibility of system status, match between system and real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention and recovery, recognition over recall, flexibility and efficiency, aesthetic and minimalist design, error recovery, and documentation—form the basis of most evaluations.