Heuristics Evaluation

Heuristic Evaluations – one or more independent reviewers perform an evaluation and consolidate findings into one formal document. Evaluators use specific guidelines and look for issues that could impact product success.

Usually before a product is launched into the market… one of the important aspects that should be taken into consideration is an analysis of issues that might have an impact on the success of the product. One way of doing this is to perform a Usability test where the potential users are invited and the product is tested in terms of the feedback received from the users. In terms of GUI it basically may refer to the extent with which users find it easy to use the software!

But there is another cost effective way as well… Using the pre-existing research to consolidate and view the issues that may arise during product usage. Let’s look at the brief pros and cons of the process.

Pros • Best for reviewing advanced prototypes • Can be performed quickly • Experts can identify major layout and presentation problems

Cons • Do not involve real subjects • May not identify task organization problems, which may be critical to overall success

Well then I guess the best idea would be to look at how it’s done?

Nielsen Heuristic Evaluations
The most-used set of heuristics is credited to Molich and Nielsen (1990). These heuristics include: 1. Use simple and natural dialogue 2. Speak the user’s language 3. Minimize use of the user’s memory 4. Be consistent 5. Provide feedback 6. Provide clearly marked exits 7. Provide shortcuts 8. Provide good error messages 9. Prevent errors 10. Provide help and documentation	In 1994 Nielsen published a better set of heuristics. These include: 1. Visibility of system status 2. Match between system and the real world 3. User control and freedom 4. Consistency and standards 5. Error prevention 6. Recognition rather than recall memory 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design 9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Gerhardt-Powals Heuristic Evaluations

An improved, research-based, set of heuristics was devised by Gerhardt-Powals (1996). These include: 1. Automate unwanted workload: • Free cognitive resources for high-level tasks • Eliminate mental calculations, estimations, comparisons, and unnecessary thinking 2. Reduce uncertainty by displaying data clearly and obviously 3. Reduce cognitive load by combining lower-level data into a higher-level summation 4. Present new information with meaningful aids to interpretation: • Use a familiar framework, making it easier to absorb • Use everyday terms, metaphors, etc. 5. Use names that are conceptually related to function: • Make it context-dependent • Try to improve recall and recognition 6. Group data in consistently meaningful ways to decrease search time 7. Limit data-driven tasks: • Reduce the time spent assimilating raw data • Make appropriate use of color and graphics 8. Include only the information a user needs at a given time: • Allow users to remain focused on critical data • Exclude extraneous information that is not relevant to current tasks 9. Provide multiple coding of data when appropriate 10. Practice judicious redundancy (to resolve the possible conflict between heuristics six and eight)