What is Heuristic evaluation Background Benefits Main advantages and drawbacks of the method Scenario and methods of evaluation 10 usability Heuristics in usability engineering How to conduct heuristic Evaluation Phases of the Evaluation Method Problems and Evaluators Seamlessness thought the whole user experience

1. Heuristic evaluation of
usability

2. Content
• What is Heuristic evaluation
• Background
• Benefits
• Main advantages and drawbacks of the method
• Scenario and methods of evaluation
• 10 usability Heuristics in usability engineering
• How to conduct heuristic Evaluation
• Phases of the Evaluation Method
• Problems and Evaluators
• Seamlessness thought the whole user experience

3. What is heuristic Evaluation?
• Inadequate use of usability engineering methods in software development projects
costs $30 billion per year in US only
• A generic name for a set of methods based on having evaluators inspect or
examine usability-related aspects of a user interface
• Form of usability inspection where usability specialists
examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles
(the "heuristics").

4. Background
• Developed by Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich in 1990
• Main concepts are to improve analyzing the interface and judge its compliance with
recognized usability principles ( heuristics )
• External/ carefully chosen experienced evaluators examine usability-related aspects
of UI by
o Analyzing the quality attribute’s
o Set of methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process
o Increases efficiency, consumer satisfaction rates and learning

5. Main advantages and drawbacks
• Quick, valid, useful and cost-effective
• Feedback early in the design process
• Relevanat set of criterias/ heuristics
• Compatible with other usability testing methodologies
• Enables for further examine potential issues
ON THE OTHER SIDE DISADVANTAGES COULD BE…

6. COnt…
The Heuristic evaluation
• Requires knowledge and experience for effective implementation
• Experts are sometimes hard to find and can be expensive
• Complexity of aggregating multiple experts results
• Threat of incorrectly weighting issues

7. Scenario and methods of evaluation
• Define application objectives-know the system
• Define user goals-know the user!
• Conduct inquiry methods
• Informal usability testing
• Develop and administer the survey
• Apply heuristics-Global and Local principles

8. 10 Usability Heuristics in usability engineering
• Visibility of system status
keep users informed about what is going on
• Match between system and the real world
The application should speak the users' language
• User control and freedom
Users often choose app functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked
emergency exit.

9. COnt…
• Consistency and standards
Follow platform conventions
• Error prevention
confirmation option before they commit to the action
• Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
Think of both inexperienced and experienced users

10. COnt…
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
Avoid rarely needed information as much as possible
• Help and documentation
Always provide users with more information when they are looking for it.

11. How to
• Difficult for a single individual to do
• possible to improve the effectiveness of the method significantly by
involving multiple evaluators
• performed by having each individual evaluator inspect the interface alone
based on the given heuristics

12. Phases of heuristic evaluation
1. Pre-evaluation training
2. Evaluation
3. Severity rating (Priority)
4. Debriefing

13. Problems & Evaluators
• No evaluator finds everything
• Some find more than others

14. References
• Doubleday, Ann; Ryan, Michele; Springett, Mark; Sutcliffe, Alistair. "A Compaison of
Usability Techniques for Evaluating Design". Centre for HCI Design, School of
Informatics. Northampton Square, London. 1997. p. 104-108.
• Nielsen, Jakob, and Rolf Molich. "Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces."
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.
ACM, 1990.
• Nielsen, Jakob, and Thomas K. Landauer. "A mathematical model of the finding of
usability problems." Proceedings of the INTERACT'93 and CHI'93 conference on
Human factors in computing systems. ACM, 1993. p.206-213

15. • Shackel, Brian, and Simon J. Richardson, eds. Human factors for
informatics usability. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
• Nielsen Norman Group: Introduction to Usability. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-
introduction-to-usability/. [Accessed 03 December 2013].