What is Heuristic evaluation?
A heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method where evaluators examine an interface against a set of established usability principles (heuristics) to identify problems, without involving actual users.
How it works
The most widely used heuristics are Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics (1994): visibility of system status, match between system and real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, help users recognize and recover from errors, and help and documentation. Typically 3-5 evaluators independently review the interface, each noting violations. The independent evaluations are then combined, as different evaluators tend to find different problems. Heuristic evaluation is fast and cheap but finds different (often complementary) problems than usability testing with real users.
Applied example
Three UX evaluators independently review a new employee onboarding portal. Evaluator A finds 12 violations, B finds 9, and C finds 11, with only 4 overlapping. The combined list of 28 unique issues includes critical problems like no way to undo submitted forms (violating ‘user control and freedom’) that would have caused real user frustration.
Why it matters
Heuristic evaluation provides fast, expert-driven quality assurance for interfaces, catching usability violations that can be identified from principles alone, complementing user testing rather than replacing it.
