Heuristics Reviews
What is it?
Heuristics are just rules of thumb – established guidelines against
which a site or application can be evaluated quickly. A heuristic
review is therefore a quick analysis of potential problem areas,
resulting in high-level recommendations for ways to improve the
site or service.
(Note that a heuristic review isn’t a replacement for full-scale user
interface design. The UI works best when it is based on a
cohesive design that has been fully thought-out, reviewed, and
tested.
Who uses it?
Product Owners can use a heuristic review to identify quick, high
impact improvements to a product (low hanging fruit!).
Business Stakeholders can use a heuristic review to scope and
justify larger, more resource-intensive efforts (e.g., fill out a WID).
For Developers, heuristic reviews can function as interaction
design patterns – or guidelines that can be reused from project-toproject
as UI best practices.
How It Works
- Start whenever! It helps if there has been some discussion
about a need for improvements, but a heuristic review can
usually uncover unexpected improvements in any product. - A UI designer will spend a few hours working with the
site, reviewing workflow, page structure, control
interactions, and navigation, naming, and visual
consistency. - The resulting document will record deviations from
recognized standards and explain how a standard can be
correctly applied. It will include areas to focus on for quick
fixes, as well as recommendations for future improvements.
Getting Started
Check out samples from previous information architecture projects or contact
us to get started.
