Web Usability: Usability Inspections

Heuristic evaluation

A heuristic technique (/hjᵿˈrɪstᵻk/; Ancient Greek: εὑρίσκω, “find” or “discover”), often called simply a heuristic, is any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals. (Wikipedia, 2017)

In context of usability, heuristic evaluation is examination of interface & comparison against set of usability principles by a small group of between three & five evaluators.

Evaluators work independently matching problems & issues against violated principles. Helps to alleviate subjectivity.

Results then merged and ranked by severity.

List of best practises (heuristics) evaluated against such as “Ensure that the user can return to the home page from any page on a site.”

References

Wikipedia, 2017, Heuristic [online]. Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic [Accessed 19th April 2017].