Introduction
- What is Usability?
- List of Common Usability Problems
- What is Heuristics?
- A quote/analogy to explain heuristics
Heuristics Evaluation: The Brain Behind Usability
- What heuristic evaluation entails
- Usability heuristics by Jacob Nielsen
- The Benefit of Heuristics Evaluation to a Design
How Heuristics Evaluation Can Increase User Experience
- Early Detection of the problem
- It is based on Usability Principles
- Cost-effectiveness
The Setback of Heuristic Evaluation
- Reliance of expert for evaluation
- It might not be the perfect choice
- It does not apply to all Usability issues
How Can You Conduct Heuristic Evaluation?
- Define the purpose of heuristic evaluation
- Make a team and explain the work to be done
- Choose a Heuristic plan
- Conduct evaluations based on the plan
- Analyze individual report
- Conclusion and Recommendations
FAQS
Conclusion
How Heuristic Evaluation Can Solve Major Usability Issues.
How do you explain a well-detailed and beautiful app that is not improving any business goals and still generates dozens of customer complaints? It is not far-fetched; it could be a usability problem.
Usability explains how well, how fast and how easy it is to use a product. It examines how a user interacts with the website or app to perform their tasks effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily.
Emphasis is on three key things:
- Effectiveness:- Can user perform their task?
- Efficiency: Can they complete the task quickly and with little effort?
- Satisfaction: Do they enjoy doing their task?
Good usability results from good heuristic evaluation, which is why every designer needs to understand usability. An example of usability is an ATM, which has the option to first pick their preferred language when initiating a transaction. The ATM will also have an interactive element, a logical arrangement of instructions to make cash dispensing easy and fast.
List of Common Usability Problems
The list includes but is not limited to the following:
- Technical Jargon/Terminologies
- Absent or discreet search function
- Small buttons/clickable icons
- No feedbacks
- Slow performance
- Broken links
- Intrusive Ads/ frequent pop-ups
What is Heuristics?
Heuristics are mental notes we take to make decisions or solve problems. They are based on the rule of thumbs, which means they don’t depend on specific or exact calculations. Heuristics result from practice and expertise rather than theoretical knowledge.
Designers use heuristics to help them identify problems quickly and propose the best solution to avoid stories that touch the heart. Since heuristics are not definitive, it takes a high level of expertise to develop a good sense of judgment for a design, especially regarding usability.
Heuristics is not limited to UX design; it is an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. Psychology, AI, Economics, and other social science fields use heuristics to develop probable solutions.
Heuristics Evaluation: The Brain Behind Usability
Heuristic Evaluation is an introspective approach to identifying problems in a design. As mentioned earlier, it involves using mental notes as a guideline to uncover usability problems. It helps create user-friendly and successful digital products by focusing on well-established design principles.
Heuristics can be learned through years of experience, but Jacob Nielsen developed one popular usability heuristic.
Usability Heuristics by Jacob Nielsen
Jacob’s heuristic has gained popularity, and many designers and brands have decided to adopt it as their method. It is comprehensive and detailed enough to cover most usability issues in a design. It is a set of ten broad principles that act as a checklist for evaluating the usability of a website, app, or any digital interface.
- Visibility of System Status: This is based on communication and transparency, especially through feedback. It gives users a full idea of what decision to make or keeps them in the loop about actions taken already.
- Match between system and the real world: Your design should adapt to real-life situations, and the solutions should relate to how things work. Consider using simple words or terms to explain information.
- User control and freedom: Give your users the liberty to control and play around with your design without any residual feelings. They should have options to do and undo an action and be able to choose what they want to do at any time. If your design lacks user control, you should go back to the drawing board.
- Consistency and standards: This is a non-negotiable principle in a design. Similar Elements should look and act the same way to spare the user time figuring out what the elements do whenever they come across them. The brand should have a standard/system to make it easy to enforce consistency.
- Error prevention: No one is above mistake, and it is the duty of a designer to reduce the possibility of errors for the user. Jacob’s principle identified two types of errors: Slips(unconscious error) and mistakes(conscious error). This includes features like auto-complete for forms or confirmation prompts before irreversible actions.
- Recognition rather than recall: The efficiency of a digital product lies its ability to be easily remembered by users. Users don’t have the time to memorize all the functions that exist in an app, so instructions should be readily available at the users’ discretion.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use: No one method fits all. Your design should allow users to enjoy their personal way of performing a task. An experienced user will have a shortcut, and a novice user should also be able to identify shortcuts easily.
- Aesthetic and minimalist design: Your design should find a balance between being visually appealing and scanty. Too much information can make a design tacky, and too little information can make the design look unimportant to the user. This principle ensures you have just the right amount of information.
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: It is not enough to identify an error; it should also come with a remedy. For example, incorrect password combinations should be accompanied by a message or note describing the standard password combination.
- Help and documentation: This points down to the meaning of UX design as a design that solves problems. Your design should provide help no matter how small or big, and these details should be documented. It can be in the form of FAQs or available support/self-service.
How Heuristics Evaluation Can Increase User Experience
The benefit of heuristics evaluation is that it answers why you should consider it in your design process.
Early Detection
Heuristic evaluation helps you identify problems early enough and look for areas to improve the design. This reduces the effort required to solve the problem at a later stage.
Even as a designer, it makes your workload easier than piling up corrections and edits. The quest to meet deadlines and attend to all the usability issues before production may be difficult. That’s where heuristics come in, design and edit as you go.
Cost-effective
Heuristic evaluation is relatively affordable, as there is no need to use big technologies or consult many people. The designer’s expertise is enough to identify usability issues and provide solutions as soon as possible.
Fixing the problem early enough will reduce the cost incurred at a later stage. This will save resources in the long run and ensure that you’re developing a product users will enjoy using.
It is based on Usability Principles.
Heuristic evaluation relies on proven usability principles, such as Nielsen’s ten heuristics. Based on research and best practices, these principles ensure that your design is free from common usability issues.
The principle creates a foundation for designing interfaces that are intuitive and easy for users to use. This reduces the effort put into learning and allows users to focus on completing tasks.
Improved User Retention
A design that is easy to use is a welcoming environment for users and a premise to build their trust in the brand. Users are drawn to return to a product that is easy for them and pleasurable to use.
The positive experience they enjoy will make them loyal, leading to increased sales, conversions, or positive brand perception.
The Setback of Heuristic Evaluation
While heuristic evaluation might be a viable option for usability, it has its downsides. This is not to discourage you from trying it out but to serve as a warning sign and find counter-actions to eliminate its drawbacks.
- Reliance on expert for evaluation: Heuristics evaluation is based on the discretion of the designer when solving usability problems. Not every designer can successfully conduct a heuristic evaluation. If the evaluators aren’t familiar with usability best practices, the evaluation might miss important issues, so it is better to consult the services of experts.
- It does not apply to all Usability issues: Heuristic evaluations are like guidelines, and some context might require another approach to solving the problem. The ideal evaluation might not be the optimal solution for a particular design.
- Limited Scope: Evaluators aren’t real users, so they might miss some nuanced issues that actual users encounter. This leaves little to no room for users to express themselves with usability issues. Heuristic evaluation is a good starting point but shouldn’t replace user testing entirely. It should also allow for user feedback.
How Can You Conduct Heuristic Evaluation?
This is the most important learning curve for every designer.
Define the purpose of heuristic Evaluation.
Spelling out the purpose of the evaluation sets the stage for the entire process and the people involved. The first thing to do is to outline at least 3 to 5 goals you want to achieve from the evaluation. Then, you move on to identify the area of focus on the app or website and finally tailor your evaluation process to the focus area.
Choose a Heuristic plan.
As discussed earlier, Jacob Nielsen’s heuristics is one of the most popular plans, and you should consider it. Otherwise, you can come up with your yardstick for usability evaluation. It can be difficult and take time, but it is worth it. You have the liberty to personalize the plan to be in tune with the product, the brand and the target audience.
Make a team and explain the work to be done.
Outlining the purpose of evaluation makes it easier to determine the kind of UX Generalist or Specialist you need. It is advisable to target 3-5 designers and avoid people who have been working on the project since its inception.
Here, you should expand the goals by including how to achieve them, their limitations, which standard technique you will use, and which part will be assigned to each UX designer. Train and educate the designers on the chosen set of heuristics and clearly explain the evaluation process, consolidation of findings, and reporting.
Conduct evaluations based on the plan.
This is where the real work begins: The evaluators start scrutinizing the design for usability issues. Each evaluator will work independently on a specific aspect of the product. They will use the chosen heuristics to identify potential usability violations.
The evaluators will also provide an extensive report on their observations. The report should contain possible causes of the usability problems, solutions, and the method of applying the solution. It should also include the severity, potential impact on users, and degree of urgency.
For example, the visibility of system status should focus on whether the app provides feedback as users use the search function, such as search suggestions or loading indicators. Then, to ensure a match between the system and the real world, the evaluator should check if the search term is simple or just a bunch of technical terms.
Analyze individual report
This is the second scrutiny stage of the evaluators, where they see if their report is in line with the heuristics and if it solves a problem or creates a problem out of nowhere. This aims to get a comprehensive picture of usability and leverage every evaluator’s knowledge.
This is done through group discussions, identifying similarities and differences in every evaluation. Then, you assess the severity of the issues and group the usability problem based on each heuristic.
Conclusion and Recommendations
You tie up loose ends in this final stage and consolidate every report. You draw conclusions and give actionable solutions for the designers working on the product. The conclusion can be used for future reference, so it should not be limited to the present issues.
The conclusion should not be another document full of written information; it should include visual aids to help the designers understand what to do. It should also include a KPI to assess the success of heuristic evaluation.
“Heuristic analysis is only as good as the person conducting it. Hence, if the person/people appointed to conduct the analysis are not knowledgeable, then the quality will be hampered. Brands should focus on the quality of evaluators, not quantity, to ensure optimal results.”– Anthony Fernandes.
Final words on Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic evaluation is one of many usability practices, and it is open to adaptation and combination with other user-centred design practices. The aim is to create functional and easy-to-use products. To maximise the benefits of heuristics, properly assess the pros and cons. Then, find options to mitigate the setbacks of heuristic evaluation.
Our expert UX team will guide you through a comprehensive heuristic evaluation using established best practices suitable for your usability needs. Send a quick message, and let us identify usability roadblocks and provide actionable recommendations to improve your customer experience.
FAQ
1. What are other common usability heuristics?
Even though Nielsen’s heuristic is popular, other evaluations, like Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules, focus on efficiency for power users. At the same time, Carroll’s Visibility Affordance framework talks about how discoverable a product feature is. It doesn’t matter which heuristics; just make sure it caters to your usability needs.
