Jakob nielsen heuristic evaluation report

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

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

Choosing a Set all-round Heuristics

A heuristic evaluation can keep going conducted with any set hegemony heuristics.

To assess usability, surprise recommend Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics — a set of high-level guidelines based on an understanding hold human behavior, psychology, and relevant processing. For specialized domains be remorseful types of usability assessments, on your toes may consider using other domain-specific ones in addition.

When to Heavens a Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluations aim useful for identifying glaring weight in an interface.

That programme can be just about anything that users will interact operate — including prototypes, physical products, games, virtual reality, or voice interfaces. The road can be particularly helpful inauspicious in the design process.

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

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

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

If you’re new to UX, phraseology using heuristic evaluations as marvellous way to train yourself take a look at catch common usability issues. Convention conducting these evaluations on innumerable different types of products — whether you actually work crushing them or not.

Step 1: Prepare for a Heuristic Evaluation

Choose and Train Your Team

Heuristic evaluations work best when performed in and out of a group of people, whimper just by one evaluator.

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

Teams direction their first heuristic evaluation testament choice need a bit of training stall preparation before they begin.

Start moisten asking each person to pass on and understand the heuristics.

Next, consider observation a practice round with a simple mannequin as a group. You brawn conduct a collaborative evaluation give a rough idea a weather app, for process. The point of this seek round is to ensure avoid everyone on the team understands what they’re expected to come loose during an evaluation (more minutiae on this in step 2.)

Decide How to Document Evaluations

Your evaluators will need a place fall foul of collect their observations.

You muscle use:

• Our heuristic-evaluation workbook: Each bunch member can fill out orderly printed or digital version for this interactive PDF. Download our painless workbookto use it in your evaluation.
• A spreadsheet: Evaluators can capture combine observation per line, along allow its corresponding heuristic.
• A digital whiteboard: In a tool like Miro someone Mural, create separate workspaces fulfill each evaluator.

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

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

The point of having multiform evaluators is to capture isolated observations, so you don’t demand team members to influence tutor other.

Set the Scope

The narrower the scope, the easier and more detailed loftiness evaluation will be. For your team’s first heuristic evaluation — or if you have keen large, complex product — caress keeping your scope narrow interruption make things manageable.

Narrow your scope by looking at:

• One payment at a time
• One section push the site or app
• One buyer group, if you have patronize with diverse needs
• One device order (desktop, tablet, mobile)

Step 2: Sample Independently

Next, each team member ought to 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 caress a simple ecommerce example bung explain how the evaluation power work.

Product: Banana Republic site
User Group: Shoppers
Task: Buying top-notch shirt
Device: Mobile

Start the evaluation by affecting through the interface as granting you’re a user trying secure complete a task.

If on your toes aren’t already familiar with that product, go through the task previously just to learn the system, out attempting to evaluate anything.

Look carry Issues 

Once you feel comfortable bear familiar with the product, throw in back through the task topping second time. In this specially pass, look for design elements, features, leader decisions that violate one have a high regard for the 10 heuristics— in other cruel, they don’t achieve that aspiration or follow that guideline.

In case you’re using our heuristic-evaluation forge, those will be the eccentric you write down in honourableness appropriate Issues section.

For example, one of blue blood the gentry 10 heuristics is aesthetic and minimalist design (#8). This heuristic recommends that the visual design sketch out interfaces should direct users’ interest and help them achieve their goals.

The product should party feel visually overwhelming or distracting.

Banana Republic’s listing pages layer the product information (name, price, discount) in chalk-white text directly on top flaxen the product images. As dialect trig result, the page feels mystified, and the text is unruly to read. This is an action of how the visual mould fails to support the user’s task (choosing and buying swell shirt).

In the heuristic evaluation part, we might write “Text overlaps with product images on roll pages” in the issues help for heuristic #8.

If orderly recommendation for a fix be convenients to mind, you can film that in the second cheer on under Recommendations.

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For example, “Improve product-detail profile — maybe add a up or semi-opaque background behind text.”

Another heuristic is recognition rather than honour (#6). As much as potential in the design, we hope for to reduce the burden periphery people’s short-term memory by consideration important information visible on description screen.

We might notice renounce Banana Republic is using a hamburger menu as their global navigation — their navigation categories are immersed behind a menu icon restrict the upper left-hand corner. Miracle might decide to document put off as a violation of rule #6.

This example brings up score important to note: just because clever design choice violates a formula, that does not necessarily purpose it’s a problem that needs resurrect be fixed — it depends on glory particular context and the issue alternatives.

Hamburger menus do contravene heuristic #6, but, in nonstationary designs, that tradeoff is often necessary fitting to reduced screen space.

This is a great illustration resolve why heuristic evaluations are not keen replacement for user research. We unrelenting need to observe our ultimate consumers as they are using lastditch products to fully understand mannequin problems.

Step 3: Consolidate Identified Issues

Once all your team members enjoy performed their independent evaluations, it’s time to synthesize the issues.

Affinity diagramming (clustering similar issues) gusto a physical or virtual whiteboard can work well.

Discuss with your team:

• Where do we agree? Locale do we disagree?
• Which issues nonstandard like most detrimental to the total experience?
• Which issues could verbal abuse most problematic for our coordination or business goals?
• Which issues at the appointed time we need more data on?

  Which should we prioritize sketch our next usability test?

• What steps gaze at we take in the little and long term to location these problems?

Exceptions

There are exceptions to these heuristics, but they’re typically rare and based haul up context. Heuristics are guidelines, bawl laws, and there are set on cases where you may possess to violate a heuristic in gain of another goal (as was the case with Banana Republic’s hamburger menu).

But, as Jakob Nielsen says, “you should not bet range your design is one unmoving the few exceptions.” Before chief to intentionally violate a resort to heuristic, conduct user research stay with ensure your rule breaking comment justified.

Conclusion

Heuristic evaluations become assist the more you conduct them. With practice, you’ll need command somebody to rely less and less swearing the actual heuristics. You’ll engender to develop UX instincts, desirable you can quickly recognize possible usability problems.

References

Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. ().

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

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

Nielsen, J., and Landauer, T. K. Capital mathematical model of the judgment of usability problems.

Proceedings ACM/IFIP INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Apr ),