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Frequently Asked Questions about User Validation:
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What heuristics should one use when inspecting an information application ? (a1)
Why should experts perform the inspection of a user interface and not the prospective users themselves? (a2)
Jacob Nielsen presents cost/benefit curves for heuristic evaluation in his book "Usability engineering". Can one rely on these figures when planning heuristic evaluation? (a3)
What evaluation tools is one recommended to acquire first ?
There are several sources of heuristics available in the public domain. The 10 best known and mostly applied usability heuristics are those derived by Jacob Nielsen. Bastien & Scapin (1993) have done some careful research to produce a set of validated heuristics, and their work should be taken seriously. The latest set of usability heuristics can be found by browsing the WWW for instances of 'usability' and 'heuristics'. Collections of such heuristics for the design and evaluation of web sites themselves have proliferated in the past year: few of them show any signs of independent validation.
References:
Bastien & Scapin (1993). Ergonomic criteria for the evaluation of human computer interfaces. Scientific Report No. 156. INRIA.
These and more general readings can be found on our references page.
Why should experts perform the inspection of a user interface and not the prospective users themselves?
Good evaluators are experts. Experts are persons who have considerable knowledge about user interface standards, design guidelines, and they know examples of good and bad design. Due to the fact that experts have been involved in the evaluation of numerous user interfaces, they are able to clearly identify advantages and disadvantages of user interface features. Experts have developed an implicit baseline against which they evaluate and compare new user interfaces.
Jacob Nielsen presents cost/benefit curves for heuristic evaluation in his book "Usability engineering". Can one rely on these figures when planning heuristic evaluation?
In general yes. But everyone should collect his on own, more specific data to determine the optimal number of evaluators for specific development projects.