What:
A form of usability inspection where specialists assess how well an interface complies with recognized usability principles (heuristics). Usually two or three experts review a system, noting and ranking problems.
Why:
Provides quick, inexpensive usability feedback. Can be a good method early in a development process, as it concentrates on the basics, ensuring that an interface is fundamentally sound before more in-depth testing with real users.
Resources:
Rolf Molich and Jakob Nielsen created heuristic evaluation in 1990 as part of an effort to lower the costs of usability evaluation. Jakob has quite a few articles on it; this one is a good start.
We'll also find a less academic one and update the resources here soon :)
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Posted in on March 18, 2009