Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is a variation of usability inspection where usability specialists judge whether each element of a user interface follows established usability principles. This method is the part of the so-called 'discount usability engineering' method.

Hom, James. VWH.net. Articles>Usability>Methods

Heuristic Evaluation - a Step By Step Guide

Evaluation and testing is an important part of your website development process. Usability tests gather data about the usability of your site by a group of users performing specific tasks.

Danino, Nicky. SitePoint (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>Assessment

Heuristic Evaluation Quality Score (HEQS): A Measure of Heuristic Evaluation Skills  

Heuristic Evaluation is a discount usability engineering method involving three or more evaluators who evaluate the compliance of an interface based on a set of heuristics. Because the quality of the evaluation is highly dependent on their skills, it is critical to measure these skills to ensure evaluations are of a certain standard. This study provides a framework to quantify heuristic evaluation skills. Quantification is based on the number of unique issues identified by the evaluators as well as the severity of each issue. Unique issues are categorized into eight user interface parameters and severity is categorized into three. A benchmark computed from the collated evaluations is used to compare skills across applications as well as within applications. The result of this skill measurement divides the evaluators into levels of expertise. Two case studies illustrate the process, as well as its applications. Further studies will help define an expert's profile.

Kirmani, Shazeeye and Shamugam Rajasekaran. Journal of Usability Studies (2007). Articles>Usability>Assessment>Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic Evaluations vs. Usability Testing

How many of the usability problems identified in a heuristic evaluation are true usability problems? Several years ago, I published an article suggesting that many of the 'problems' identified by heuristic evaluators were not problems at all (Bailey, Allan and Raiello, 1992). Even so, many of us have continued to waste time and go to the expense of fixing many usability problems that were not problems. Recently, three research papers were published that provided some insights into the validity of heuristic evaluations (Catani and Biers, 1998; Rooden, et.al., 1999; Stanton and Stevenage, 1998). The articles discussed usability testing in three totally different domains with very similar results.

Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2002). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Heuristic Inspections for Documentation – 10 Recommended Documentation Heuristics

We all are familiar with Jakob Nielsen's heuristics for evaluating the usability of interfaces. When I was conducting a study on documentation usability, I started wondering if there existed a similar set of heuristics for evaluating the usability of documentation. The natural place to pose such a question was the STC Usability SIG mailing list. The response was that there was no heuristics set available although someone had tried to open the discussion in the mailing list some time ago. An answer, which led to the list of heuristics presented below, was something along the line 'Well, now that you asked, why don't you put the heuristics together' and so I did.

Purho, Vesa. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability>Documentation

Heuristics to Evaluate Online Help

Creates a set of questions for each usability category for the person performing the heuristic evaluation with a range of very satisfied to very unsatisfied to not applicable. Each question can have a severity level that can raise significant opportunities for improvement to the foreground.

DeBoard, Donn. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Heuristic Evaluation

HFI Certification: Fulfilling Your Needs as a Practitioner

Usability is more and more critical to online success, but most developers have no formal training in it and most companies have no formal program for it.

Schaffer, Eric M. and Phil Goddard. Human Factors International (2006). Presentations>Human Computer Interaction>Usability

HHS Announces Availability of New Guidelines to Improve Web-Based Communication

Last month HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the availability of a new research-based guide to Web site design and usability.

Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods

Hiding Behind the User

At a time when the customer service culture has penetrated every level of business, and businesspeople fret endlessly over issues such as customer loyalty, companies are extremely susceptible to worries that they are, without even knowing it, turning customers away.

Eliot, Ben. Spiked Online (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability

High-Cost Usability Sometimes Makes Sense

Computing the net present value (NPV) lets you estimate the most profitable level of usability investment. For big projects, expensive usability can pay off.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Usability>Project Management>Planning

Highlighting Functionality

Research indicates that most users never find the majority of the functionality in any given application. Learning tends to reach a plateau early on, and is rarely expanded upon. And what that means is that most customers consistently undervalue the software products they purchase and use.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design

Home Stayers And Trench Diggers

This paper offers some observations on the ways 9 to 12 year children search for information on websites and how this may differ from the search behaviour of adults.

Hudson, Roger. Usability.com.au (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

Homepage Real Estate Allocation

On average, sample sites evenly distributed valuable screen space between content, navigation, fluff, blank areas, and system overhead. Areas of user interest should occupy more than the current 39%.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability

Hotspots and Hyperlinks: Using Eye-Tracking to Supplement Usability Testing

This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations.

Russell, Mark C. Usability News (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

Hotspots and Hyperlinks: Using Eye-Tracking to Supplement Usability Testing

This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations.

Russell, Mark C. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

How Big is the Difference Between Websites?

The average difference in measured usability between competing websites is 68%. This is smaller than expected, but makes sense given the dynamics of design within individual industries.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Articles>Usability>Web Design

How Can You 'Insure' Usability? – Achieving Routine User-Centered Design for Anthem's 12 Million Members Worldwide

Discusses how Anthem attained the training, standards, and resources they needed to create a sustained usability effort.

Weinschenk, Susan and Kyle Tolar. Human Factors International (2006). Presentations>Usability>User Centered Design

How Do People Really Use Text Editors?

Keystroke statistics were collected on editing systems while people performed their normal work. Knowledge workers used an experimental editor, and secretaries used a word processor. Results show a consistent picture of free use patterns in both settings. Of the total number of keystrokes, text entry accounted for approximately 1/2, cursor movement for about 1/4, deletion for about 1/8, and all other functions for the remaining 1/8. Analysis of keystroke transitions and editing states is also presented. Implications for past research, editor design, keyboard layout, and benchmark tests are discussed.

Whiteside, John, Norman Archer, Dennis Wixon and Michael Good. ACM SIGCHI (1982). Articles>Usability>Software>Word Processing

How FreshDirect Delivered e-Commerce Success

The lessons for FreshDirect's usability success can be applied to many e-commerce businesses.

Seiden, Alan. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

How Good are Designers at Predicting User Performance?

Having designers guess the best way of achieving optimal user performance is very difficult. Their design decisions can be improved by ensuring that designers are familiar with the research literature, and by effectively using performance-based usability testing.

Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability

How Good Does Your Web Site Look on Paper?

Paper prototyping is a fast, low-cost method of testing web site designs. It involves creating rough sketches of a web site design and inviting some of your users to take the design for a test drive using their pen, instead of a mouse, to complete important tasks.

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2004). Articles>Web Design>Usability

How Important is Visual Feedback When Using a Touch Screen?

From check station point-of-sale devices (restaurants, grocery stores, etc.) to information kiosks, to the cars we drive (navigation systems), touch screens have become the input device of choice.  While the versatility of the touch screen is highly desired, the poor performance it achieves relative to the mechanical keyboard has been something that users have been forced to deal with.  Empirical research studies have found that touch screens consistently produced slower and less accurate performance when compared with keyboards  (Barrett & Krueger, 1994; Wilson, Inderrieden, & Liu, 1995). Schneiderman (1998) outlines the many advantages and disadvantages to using a touch screen.

Deron, Michael. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Design

How Little Do Users Read?

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design

How Many Subjects Do I Need for a Statistically Valid Survey?

Beware of people who give quick, pat answers in response to the question - ‘I’m doing a survey. How many subjects do I need?’ They probably haven’t a clue as to what they’re talking about. There aren’t any valid quick answers to this question. I work in the medical domain and advise faculty/residents/medical students on sample size determination for survey research studies all the time because, in medicine, survey results are often discounted and are not publishable unless you can support/validate the decision you made regarding sample size. We do this through power analysis, and except for the simplest power analyses, it's good to have the advice and assistance of a statistician.

Gardner-Bonneau, Daryle. Usability Interface (1998). Articles>Usability