Heuristic evaluation is the most popular of the usability inspection methods.
Heuristic evaluation is done as a systematic inspection of a user interface design for usability.
The goal of heuristic evaluation is to find the usability problems in the design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process. The book also covers other, more specialized usability inspection methods like formal usability inspection, standards inspection, consistency inspection, and cognitive walkthrough. These other methods all have their benefits and are preferred under certain circumstances, but heuristic evaluation is the most general of the usability inspection methods and is also the easiest to learn and apply. Other Links Use of heuristic evaluation has spread like wildfire, so there are many other websites with information about heuristic evaluation. A Google search or an InfoSeek search find about 600 pages about heuristic evaluation.