7 Trade-offs for doing a Heuristic Evaluation¶
The Heuristic Evaluation is only one method that we can use to evaluate the usability of an interface. Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of using a heuristic evaluation.
Pros of using a heuristic evaluation:
Heuristics can help the evaluators focus their attention on certain issues
Heuristic evaluation does not carry the ethical and practical issues/problems associated with inspection methods involving real users.
Evaluating designs using a set of heuristics can help identify usability problems with individual elements and how they impact the overall user experience.
Cons of using a heuristic evaluation:
Choosing appropriate heuristics is extremely important; if the wrong set of heuristics is employed, certain usability problems may be overlooked.
Heuristic evaluation might be relatively time-consuming when compared to other ‘quick and dirty’ inspection methods, such as simple walkthroughs with a small sample of users. Training evaluators takes about a week on average, not including the time it takes to conduct the evaluations and debriefing sessions.
Unlike cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic evaluation is based on preconceived notions of what makes ‘good’ usability. However, this need not be seen as a negative point, as heuristics are often based on the experiences of real users with hundreds of designs.
Problems identified by evaluators can often be false alarms.