Assessing Usability with Heuristics: Guide to Performing a Heuristic Evaluation
In 1990, Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich established a list of ten user interface design heuristics, widely recognised principles for creating usable interfaces. These heuristics have stood the test of time and continue to be relevant in today's digital landscape, even as technology evolves.
The heuristics are:
- Visibility of system status
- Match between system and the 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, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and documentation
Adapting these heuristics to new technologies like mobile devices and voice-based smart devices involves contextualizing their core ideas to fit the unique interaction paradigms of these platforms.
For mobile devices, this means accommodating smaller screens, touch interactions, and variable context of use by:
- Ensuring visibility of system status through subtle but clear feedback
- Matching system language and concepts to everyday mobile contexts
- Providing intuitive gestures and undo options
- Maintaining consistency with platform standards (iOS, Android)
- Preventing errors by limiting input options or validating input inline
- Reducing memory load by showing relevant options and using recognition over recall
- Allowing flexible use patterns for novices and experts
- Keeping interfaces simple and uncluttered
- Offering clear, simple error messages and recovery options
- Providing easily accessible help that fits mobile usage patterns
For voice-based smart devices, where visual feedback and traditional input are limited or absent, the heuristics require reinterpretation:
- Visibility of system status becomes audible or tactile feedback
- Match between system and the real world means using natural language and familiar conversational patterns
- User control and freedom manifest in the ability to interrupt, cancel, or correct voice input easily
- Consistency and standards involve adhering to common voice interaction conventions and predictable dialogue flows
- Error prevention includes confirmations before critical actions and using context to minimize misinterpretations
- Recognition rather than recall is critical since users can't see lists, so the system should provide prompts and suggestions vocally
- Flexibility and efficiency can be addressed by supporting both novice (guided dialog) and expert (short verbal commands) users
- Minimalist design is interpreted as concise, clear spoken communication without overwhelming the user
- Helping users recognize and recover from errors involves clear voice feedback and guidance on how to continue or correct commands
- Help and documentation might be delivered through voice prompts or linked mobile apps for deeper guidance
In summary, adapting Nielsen and Molich’s heuristics to new technology contexts requires translating their principles into modality-appropriate forms—visual and tactile for mobile, auditory and conversational for voice—while preserving their fundamental focus on user comprehension, control, and efficiency.
It's important to note that heuristic evaluation, while a quick and inexpensive method, has its limitations. Evaluators can only identify 21% of genuine usability problems compared to usability testing, as found by Robert Bailey, Robert Allan, and P. Raiello. To mitigate this, using multiple evaluators and conducting a debriefing session can help limit the effect misreporting has on the applicability of findings from heuristic evaluation.
For more information about Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, visit this link.
- To effectively apply Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich's user interface design heuristics in today's technological landscape, their principles must be contextualized and adapted to accommodate new platforms like mobile devices and voice-based smart devices.
- For mobile devices, the heuristics can be realized by ensuring intuitive touch interactions, providing clear feedback, maintaining consistency with platform standards, minimizing errors, and streamlining the user interface, among other factors.
- In the case of voice-based smart devices, the heuristics' interpretation revolves around using natural language, offering clear and concise spoken communication, and providing auditory or tactile feedback to represent system status.
- While heuristic evaluation is a convenient and cost-effective method for assessing user interfaces, it should be noted that it only identifies approximately 21% of genuine usability problems compared to usability testing, as shown by Robert Bailey, Robert Allan, and P. Raiello. To enhance the accuracy of findings, multiple evaluators and debriefing sessions can help mitigate misreporting in heuristic evaluations.
