Check List
This check list has been supplied as a reading aid to the Heuristic Evaluation method and as a reminder for the evaluation of the prototype
1. Visibility of System Status
Are users kept informed about system progress with appropriate feedback within reasonable time?
2. Match between system and the real world
Does the system use concepts and language familiar to the user rather than system-oriented terms. Does the system use real-world conventions and display information in a natural and logical order?
3. User control and freedom
Can users do what they want when they want?
4. Consistency and Standards
Do design elements such as objects and actions have the same meaning or effect in different situations?
5. Error prevention
Can users make errors which good designs would prevent?
6. Recognition rather than recall
Are design elements such as objects, actions and options visible? Is the user forced to remember information from one part of a system to another.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Are task methods efficient and can users customise frequent actions or use short cuts?
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
Do dialogues contain irrelevant or rarely needed information?
9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
Are error messages expressed in plain language (no codes), do they accurately describe the problem and suggest a solution?
10. Help and documentation
Is appropriate help information supplied, and is this information easy to search and focused on the useršs tasks?
11. Present necessary data accurately and unambiguously
Does the visualisation display only the data necessary for a particular task, and is this data presented accurately and unambiguously so that users do not make false inferences?
12. Avoid Unwanted Gestalt Effects
Are there any unwanted gestalt effects of proximity, similarity, closure, continuity and symmetry?
13. Make Software Objects Easy to Identify and Discriminate
Are software objects displayed in a way that users can easily identify them?
These materials have been developed for use on UK EPSRC project no. GR/K82727 ( Extending HCI Design Principles and Task Analysis for Software and Data Visualisation) by Darryn Lavery, Gilbert Cockton and Malcolm Atkinson. A structure has been applied to the heuristics, and to the best of our intentions we have kept the original meanings of the individual heuristics. The structure and any unintended changes to the meanings remain the responsibility of the authors and not Jakob Nielsen.
Re-used with permission by conforming to requirements laid out at http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/asp/evaluation_materials/SVHE_1.0/. The materials must not be copied by anyone else who has not visited the web page and agreed to the conditions of use. The latest versions of the materials can be obtained from http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/asp/evaluation_materials/.
Last updated 12-6-97