3 One of the most important ways to make your Web site easier to use is to do testing with users . But there are several other techniques in the usability engineering arsenal that can be applied to the Web. Today, we'll talk about heuristic evaluation.
Heuristic evaluation is well-suited for the Web because it can be easy, fast and inexpensive.
Often the evaluators are specially-trained usability specialists, but you can also use people with just an hour of training. Basically, heuristic evaluation involves identifying your heuristics, gathering opinions about the usability of your site, merging and rating the problems that were identified, and then trying to work toward solutions. The rules of thumb you use are the most important part of a heuristic evaluation. They set the stage for identifying problems and provide the vehicle for finding solutions. Jakob Nielsen originated heuristic evaluation in the early 1990s and has compiled the most comprehensive set of heuristics.