The heuristic evaluation process

Nielsen’s heuristics are just one set of design heuristics. There are several others like Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules and Gerhardt-Powals' cognitive engineering principles. Pick what fits your product. Here's how to use them for evaluating usability:

1. Define your goals: Know which interface aspects you're evaluating for usability issues.
2. Gather materials: Collect design docs, prototypes, and user research to understand the context.
3. Conduct evaluations: Get 3-5 experts to assess each heuristic, noting any issues.
4. Rate issues: Have experts gauge the severity of issues based on impact, frequency, and user frustration.
5. Compile findings: Merge all evaluations to see overlapping issues and prioritize them.
6. Share results: Discuss the findings with stakeholders to guide necessary changes.^[1]