Heuristic Evaluation

A fast and effective method to diagnose the usability of a website, intranet or software

Heuristic evaluation is one of the commonly used methods of usability analysis. It is a systematic methodology to analyse users' interfaces in websites, intranets and software applications.

The objective of heuristic evaluation is to identify usability problems in the design of an interface in order to solve those problems as part of an improvement process.

It entails analysing each of the components of a website and verifying them against usability standards and principles.

Our methodology

The first step in the methodology we use consists of surveying, together with our client, the characteristics and profiles of the end-users of the website, intranet or software.

Some of the components that are evaluated with this technique are:

  • Organization and hierarchy of contents.
  • Surfability
  • Drafting of content 
  • Design consistency
  • Help and documentation
  • Fulfilment of code standards
  • Flexibility and efficiency of use
  • Optimisation

Once we have these characteristics, we define which particular aspects will be analysed. To do that we identify the main tasks that users perform when using the interface.

Then we evaluate the different elements that are part of the product (website, intranet or software) bearing in mind these four aspects:

  • Design
  • Contents
  • Functionality
  • Usability

The consultants evaluate the interface focusing on each element (buttons, search engine, form, etc.) and examining its design, location and execution according to usability parameters.

As a result, the customer receives a set of documents that describe the conflicts found in each of the above-mentioned aspects and the improvement suggestions.