Transforming Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to Simple Questions for the Whole Development Team
Recently I stumbled upon a Jakob Nielsen post, stating all the new creative ways people have used his 10 Usability Heuristics. While checking all these creative articles, I noticed a missing aspect. Something that I could use with my team to improve what we are currently building. That’s what this article will try to cover, questions that anyone — from any department or skillset — can use to check against the ten Usability Heuristics.
Having these heuristics in mind while developing, experiencing, or reviewing an interface will make your skills sharper in detecting improvements and will make the interface better. So the more people in a developing team follow these heuristics, the better — and faster — the developed interface will get in terms of usability and eventually experience.
This article is for everybody but Product Designers! Still, if you are a Designer trying to find a way to pass on the usability torch to more team members, keep reading; you might find something of interest.
If you already know this, jump directly to the heuristic → question section.
Who is Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen is one of the big fathers of the usability and user experience (UX) movement that is now prominent everywhere. Nielsen, alongside Don Norman, defined the core principles of how usability and experience work today.
They created the Norman Nielsen Group (NN/g) back in 1995 and are actively conducting research, writing articles and papers, conducting seminars, issuing UX certifications after thorough exams, and recently producing podcasts to spread UX knowledge.
With that little history lesson, let’s jump to the core of this article, the ten Usability Heuristics as questions.
1. Visibility of System Status
Looking at the interface, do I know what the h**l is going on at all times?
I asked this question, directly in Medium as I was editing this post. Grabbed a screenshot to share what I’m seeing concerning this question:
- What I’m writing is a Draft placed in my Medium posts (Mike Giannakopoulos).
- All my current edits are Saved
- I haven’t published this post yet, thus I see a green “Publish” — which I assume/recall/recognize to be a button (more on this later) -
- I have zero notifications
- The topmost text is my post Title, and is defined by a dim vertical line “Jakob Nielsen’s Usability….”
2. Match between the System and the Real world
Can I easily match every option presented to what will happen if I click it?
Checking the LinkedIn header against this question, what we see is a combination of matching icons and text (that’s heuristic number 6 — Recognition rather than recall) for all actions presented, from searching to writing an article.
3. User control and freedom
Can I do all of the available actions feeling in control? Do I know what I am doing?
For this question I’ll present a counter-example; An interface I call “minefield”, where the person trying to use it is afraid of hovering or clicking without accurate mouse movement!! Check the image below.
4. Consistency and Standards
When I see an item on the interface do I know what it is? Does this stand true if this is my first time on the interface?
The example for this case is from the Steam store. Steam has a lot of content to present and organize, so relying on consistency and standards can help people on the Steam interface. What we see in the image has some mixed messages though:
- Clicking on any of the Browse Steam boxes or the Strategy, Great on Deck,… boxes above will navigate me to a list of titles. Still, the looks are different in these options.
- The carousel navigation under Strategy, Great on Deck,… and Popular VR Games indicates that there are more options in these categories (I’ve seen the carousel navigation elsewhere too).
- For each title under Popular VR Games, I see a price so it’s very obvious that by clicking on one I will not see a list of titles, but the details of that title instead.
- Hovering with the mouse on the title Arizona Sunshine I see more info which was a nice surprise. Still, I cannot interact with that info, it’s like a tooltip.
- The user tags I see in the rich tooltip imply that somewhere I can search by tag.
5. Error prevention
Does the interface inform me of vital or non-permitted actions before I click on those actions?
GDPR and cookie consent interfaces are all that I can think of for the Error prevention heuristic. Cookie and GDPR consent are one-off actions per website application you visit, with no regrets, and no roll-back. Usually, information about what you consent to is either vague or too details for you to check everything!
As is the case with everything, there are brilliant exceptions in Cookie consent too. In the following image example, TechCrunch:
- Share adequate information on what each option offers
- Informs on how to update your settings if you change your mind; So there is a way back!
6. Recognition rather than recall
Do I have to recall stuff from memory to take any action?
An example this time comes from a mobile app, FitBod. This application lets you create a training program based on your goals. The interface for performing the exercise does not rely on recalling the exercise by name or image and offers multiple ways to ensure you’re making it right.
Here’s how FitBod is helping people who are training:
- For each exercise listed, you get the exercise name and a reminder of the muscle group trained.
- When entering an exercise, Romanian Deadlift for example, you get an option for Instructions & Video to display and explain to you how to perform that exercise.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Can I do exactly what I want fast on the specific interface? Is this true if I act as a newbie or expert?
I tested this question against an application we love to hate, Jira. For this post, I focused on the Jira search (check the image below):
- The default search view has the most common dropdowns readily available for the novice user.
- As you get accustomed to searching using the available dropdown filters, you can see the + More option to extend your filtering.
- Getting more experienced you’ll Switch to JQL to get all the benefits of more flexible searching capabilities.
Jira doesn’t leave you hanging when using JQL, by reminding you of the proper syntax and options to use while you type (6. Recognition over recall), as seen in the image below.
8. Aesthetic and minimal design
Looking at the interface can I understand what’s important and feel the interface beauty at the same time?
While minimal design is a common factor across all times, the aesthetics part changes in time following specific trends. The difficult part when checking against this question is to walk the fine line between a “pleasing” and “beautiful” screen and an “understandable” and “clear” usage.
During the last ten to twelve years there has been a convergence in the aesthetics of interfaces, following specific trends each period. Keeping that in mind, we are all biased toward the common aesthetic trend! This bias makes answering the above question hard, as we focus mostly on the aesthetics and less on what we should not miss on an interface, like the main call to action, the items of attention, etc.
The current trend (end of 2023) is around dark-themed interfaces, so let’s take one example, linear.app homepage:
- The hero section clearly communicates the value of Linear.
- Right below the hero section, you can see the actual interface of Linear, which is nice! In other services, the offered application interface is not visible on the homepage.
- Scrolling to see Linear app benefits there are sections with the same looks, but some are interactive while the others are plain images.
In the following image, the huge purple plus symbol is pulsing, still it’s not an active element. The aesthetics of this view are amazing, but as I experience this section I would expect to click on the plus button waiting for something to happen.
I’m not trying to bash Linear here, I’m just sharing the fact that our aesthetic bias can compromise our judgment away from usability.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
When there is an error on the interface, can I understand what happened and what I need to do next?
My favorite example in this category is not an actual error, but empty states. Empty states might be a result of mistyping — as is the case for some 404 pages —, no search results, or first-time experiences on an empty interface.
An empty state has to include parts that:
- Educate the user on what the h**l just happened.
- Where am I right now?
- What are the steps I need to take to get out of here?
For example, try answering the question in the following two empty states.
10. Help and Documentation
Do I understand all the rules, lingo, and terminology required to perform the action I want?
To paraphrase the question “Is the interface self-explanatory or do I need to read the documentation to start using it?”
For example, let’s answer the above question (paraphrased or not) for Google Analytics 4.
Checking the above image, I mostly have questions that are not easily answered. The exception might be the question mark next to the Average engagement time, which lets me ease my guard a bit.
Closure & Summary
The 10 usability heuristics from Jakob Nielsen are a goldmine to use in all your interface developments! Building a habit across your whole team of having these heuristics in mind will have huge benefits for the application work you are doing.
To make the habit easier to adopt by the whole team, regardless of their expertise you can ask your team to answer the following questions:
- Looking at the interface, do I know what the h**l is going on at all times?
- Can I easily match every option presented to what will happen if I click it?
- Can I do all of the available actions feeling in control? Do I know what I am doing?
- When I see an item on the interface do I know what it is? Does this stand true if this is my first time on the interface?
- Does the interface inform me of vital or non-permitted actions before I click on those actions?
- Do I have to recall stuff from memory to take any action?
- Can I do exactly what I want fast on the specific interface? Is this true if I act as a newbie or expert?
- Looking at the interface can I understand what’s important and feel the interface’s beauty at the same time?
- When there is an error on the interface, can I understand what happened and what I need to do next?
- Do I understand all the rules, lingo, and terminology required to perform the action I want?
As some of these questions have overlaps, we can reduce them. This way it will be easier for the whole team to keep these questions in mind:
- Looking at the interface, do I know what the h**l is going on at all times?
- Can I easily match every option presented to what will happen if I click it?
- When I see an item on the interface do I know what it is? Does this stand true if this is my first time on the interface?
- Does the interface inform me of vital or non-permitted actions before I click on those actions?
- Can I do exactly what I want fast on the specific interface? Is this true if I act as a newbie or expert?
- Looking at the interface can I understand what’s important and feel the interface beauty at the same time?
- When there is an error on the interface, can I understand what happened and what I need to do next? (Answering this question you also answer “Can I do all of the available actions feeling in control? Do I know what I am doing?”)
- Do I understand all the rules, lingo, and terminology required to perform the action I want? (Answering this question you also answer “Do I have to recall stuff from memory to take any action?”)
So, we end up with 8 questions. Can you use these 8 questions when you:
- Design something new? The 10 Usability Heuristics are already in your mind for sure
- Develop something new?
- Review something?
If these questions helped you please share them with your colleagues!
