Why is heuristic evaluation important?
Heuristic evaluation is important because it taps into the knowledge, experience, intuition and skill of professional people whose job it is to make systems and interfaces better.
Checklists, how-to guides, automated methods of review and critique, user testing and so on all have their place of course. But there is no real substitute for an expert casting their experienced eye over a system. As the method relies on experts, the output will naturally emphasise interface functionality and design rather than the properties of the interaction between an actual user and the product.
How to run a heuristic evaluation
- Plan your session - the panel of experts must be in place in good time. All analysts need to have sufficient time to become familiar with the system or product along with intended task scenarios
- Running the session - the experts should be aware of the intended context of use. A heuristics briefing can be held to ensure agreement on a relevant set of criteria for the evaluation. If two or more experts are assessing the system, they should not communicate with one another until the assessment is complete. After the assessment period, the analysts can collate the problem lists and the individual items can be rated for severity and/or safety criticality
- Reporting the session - a report detailing the identified problems is written and fed back to the development team. The report should clearly define the ranking scheme used if the problem lists have been prioritised
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