The point of using heuristic analysis

At Ergomania, during our heuristic analysis, our UX expert analyzes and reviews a particular UX plan or a finished product, such as a website or application, to check for any usability issues.

We assess the UX plan or system not only in terms of compliance with heuristics, but also in terms of other known usability guidelines, principles in areas related to usability (such as cognitive psychology or human-computer interactions).

The aim of the process is to be able to optimize any UX plan or user interface/system using the expert opinion. Heuristic analysis should be used before user testing, but in addition to it in order to identify all important deficiencies of the system in question.

Establishing heuristic analysis at Ergomania

During the heuristic analysis, Ergomania’s UX expert not only has a deep knowledge of best practices in usability and extensive experience in usability planning, but also a person who was not involved in the preparation of the plan to be reviewed.

A new perspective is more impartial and provides honest feedback – this is how UX analyzes work best. The expert opinion works well as part of the design process in a future design usability study.

The design evaluation, especially if it reflects a completely new strategy in terms of user experience, can identify areas of concern that need to be focused on during the study and may also identify “obvious” issues that need to be addressed before usability testing.

Main methods of using heuristic analysis

The main elements of the expert opinion are:

• Identifying usability strengths
• Listing of usability problems, mapped by the locations encountered during design
• Severity classification of each usability problem
• Suggestions for solving each usability problem
• Examples of best practices for managing developments.

Heuristic analysis can be conducted at any stage of the design cycle, but is usually recommended before a major overhaul. Furthermore, even if no major redesing takes place, it is well worth conducting heuristic analysis every 2 to 5 years, outside the main life cycle of the design, to ensure that the UI continues to serve user needs properly.

What do our customers gain by using heuristic analysis?

The expert opinion provided by Ergomania’s UX expert accurately identifies the significant strengths and weaknesses of the current UX design. Heuristic analysis may also be included in a future design usability study or may be part of the modernization of a website or service.

What is the role of our customers in the preparation of heuristic analysis?

For heuristic analysis, all you have to do is determine what you want to be analyzed and provide us access to it, as well as a list of weaknesses already identified (low conversion rate, high dropout rate on check out pages, etc.), the rest is up to Ergomania.

The result of the successful use of heuristic analysis

The end result of the heuristic analysis is a written document containing an expert opinion, or a presentation with a detailed error list – practically a study with suggestions for improvement. Heuristic analysis may also rank usability findings according to the severity or frequency of the problem.

Heuristic analysis

In the course of heuristic analysis, based on our design experience, we systematically review the relevant pages and processes of the website, webshop and application on the basis of a system of criteria agreed with our client.  The aim of the heuristic analysis is to find usability errors, to identify obstacles in the way of users, to identify repair opportunities, and to formulate proposals.