One day, one of my closest friends asked me how I perform the heuristic evaluation for UI/UX design and wanted me to teach him my process.

So, I jokingly replied with a straightforward “Chal Nikal” (i.e. Get Lost) ;)

No, actually, I shared a few steps with him, which I am going to share with you guys on how I do my heuristic evaluation.

But first, let’s quickly revise some key heuristics.

10 Heuristics by Nielsen and Molich

1. Visibility of system status: Keep users informed about what is happening within the system through appropriate feedback, such as progress indicators, loading animations, or notifications.
2. Match between the system and the real world: Use language, concepts, and conventions familiar to the users, ensuring that the system behaves and presents information in a way that aligns with their expectations.
3. User control and freedom: Provide users with options to undo or redo actions, as well as escape paths from unwanted states or actions. Users should feel in control of the system at all times.
4. Consistency and standards: Follow established conventions and maintain consistency in both the interface and the system’s behavior. This includes consistent terminology, layout, and interaction patterns throughout the interface.
5. Error prevention: Design the system in a way that prevents errors or helps users recover from them easily. Use techniques such as validation, confirmation dialogs, or constraints to minimize the occurrence of errors.
6. Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the user’s memory load by making information and options visible or easily retrievable. Users should not have to rely on memory alone to navigate the system or perform tasks.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accommodate both novice and experienced users by providing shortcuts, accelerators, or customization options. Allow users to tailor the system to their specific needs and preferences.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design: Strive for simplicity and clarity in the interface design. Remove unnecessary or irrelevant elements that may distract or confuse users.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Provide clear and concise error messages that help users understand what went wrong and how to correct it. Offer suggestions or guidance on how to resolve the issue.
10. Help and documentation: Include comprehensive and easily accessible help documentation or support resources that assist users in understanding the system, its features, and how to accomplish tasks effectively.

And Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules

1. Strive for consistency: Maintain consistency in both the interface design and the system’s behavior. Use consistent language, layout, and interaction patterns throughout the interface to reduce the learning curve for users.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts: Provide shortcuts, accelerators, or quick access methods that allow experienced users to perform actions more efficiently. This caters to power users who prefer to navigate through the interface quickly.
3. Offer informative feedback: Keep users informed about the system’s status and provide feedback on their actions. Visual cues, progress indicators, or notifications help users understand the consequences of their actions and the system’s response.
4. Design dialogue to yield closure: Structure the interface and interactions in a way that provides a clear beginning, middle, and end. Users should have a sense of completion after each action or task, and the interface should guide them through the process.
5. Provide error prevention and simple error handling: Design the system to prevent errors whenever possible. Use validation techniques, constraints, and clear error messages to help users avoid mistakes. When errors do occur, provide user-friendly error messages and suggest potential solutions.
6. Support internal locus of control: Give users a sense of control and ownership over the system. Users should feel like they are in charge and can easily navigate, manipulate, and customize the interface based on their preferences.
7. Reduce short-term memory load: Minimize the cognitive load on users’ short-term memory by presenting information and options in a visible and easily retrievable manner. Avoid forcing users to remember information or navigate back and forth excessively.
8. Provide meaningful error messages: Clearly communicate error messages that accurately describe the problem and suggest a solution. Avoid using technical jargon or ambiguous language that may confuse users further.

My Process

My process of doing the heuristic evaluation is quite simple and easy, although it might change depending on the client or team I am working with, these 7 points stay the same.

1. Knowing the Rules First

Knowing the rules or heuristics is the primary goal; if you don’t understand the rules in the first place, how are you going to judge the designs?

For those of you who are new to design evaluation, I suggest you copy and paste my heuristic evaluation and golden rule points image and paste it alongside your design screens and judge them one by one.

2. Knowing the Audience and Business

Evaluators should have a brief introduction about the company and the business model, as this helps a lot in understanding users' needs. Also, I suggest you learn about your audience demographics, like age, gender, and location, as this helps in better evaluation.

3. Defining Flows and Screens

Properly arranging the design makes the evaluation much more accessible, so I always take care that my design layers are well organized and that my design flows are marked or denoted.

4. Analyzing Screens and Documenting Issues

When the flows are well arranged, I jump into the analyzing part, where I analyze the design in two phases.

In the first phase, I check the design lightly in just 30–60 minutes according to the rules and heuristics.

In the 2nd Phase, I go a little deeper and give my design 1–3 hours of deep analysis

5. Documenting Issues

After analyzing the key issues, I document them most of the time in digital form by using FigJam or Figma with sticker notes or comments.

I found FigJam a great way to document design evaluation points and issues, as it provides arrows, sticky notes with stickers, and more.

6. Reporting to the Client or Team

When I am done with the documentation process, I report all the issues I find to my team of evaluators, who are working with me individually to find issues.

You may ask, Why the Team of Evaluators?

Research has shown that when a team of 4–5 evaluators works together in evaluating design, the evaluation will be much more effective than if an individual does the evaluation.

Do we work together?

Yes or no. We work individually to find the flaws and issues, but after we have done our evaluation, we collaborate with other designers and discuss their and our issues.

“If the project is small, I mostly do the evaluation by myself. ”

After that, we work with the client and discuss the points with him, and then we finalize the changes.

7. Iterating and Re-Evaluating

After finalizing changes, the team of designers or a designer starts working on a new design where they will iterate the changes.

This is a never-ending process. Therefore, we regularly do the evaluation. Mostly after a few days or weeks. This makes sure that the app is usable for end users. That’s it for this article, guys.

I wanted to thank you for reading till the end and wanted to ask you a favor: if you like the article, please clap and share it with your designer friends to make them better designers too.

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