Heuristic Evaluation

Nielsen and Molich’s Nine Heuristics

1. Simple and natural dialog

• Simple means no irrelevant or rarely used information. Natural means an order that matches the task.

2. Speak the user’s language

• Use words and concepts from the user’s world. Don’t use system-specific engineering terms.

3. Minimize user memory load

• Don’t make the user remember things from one action to the next. Leave information on the screen until it’s not needed.

4. Be consistent

• Users should be able to learn an action sequence in one part of the system and apply it again to get similar results in other places.

5. Provide feedback

• Let users know what effect their actions have on the system.

6. Provide clearly marked exits

• If users get into part of the system that doesn’t interest them, they should always be able to get out quickly without damaging anything.

7. Provide shortcuts

• Shortcuts can help experienced users avoid lengthy dialogs and informational messages that they don’t need.

8. Good error messages

• Good error messages let the user know what the problem is and how to correct it.

9. Prevent errors

• Whenever you write an error message you should also ask, can this error be avoided?