Heuristics & QA: Why It’s a Match Made in Heaven
6 min read
Great digital experiences don’t happen by accident — they’re built on strong relationships. The best ones are thoughtful, communicative, forgiving, and consistent. Sound familiar? That’s exactly why Heuristics and QA are a match made in heaven. Together, they ensure your product doesn’t just work, but works in a way users actually love. Jakob Nielson’s 10 Usability Heuristics For Interface Design is a prescribed set of principles for the early detection of user-related issues commonly found in digital design.
This checklist is a valuable guide that is typically employed during the design phase, but we keep this set of principles top-of-mind throughout all stages of the project life cycle; from requirements, through development and the QA phases before the product is delivered. Change requests and scope creep can happen from time to time, so it’s important to continuously check to ensure that these principles are maintained at all times.The official list goes into greater detail with examples that go beyond digital design so we won’t repeat them here verbatim. For brevity, we have compiled a list that touches on each one as it applies to our ongoing methodology at KPDI:
1. Visibility of System Status
When a user performs actions within a digital interface, it must provide feedback.
Example: Good communications build trust. When a button is pressed, a page loads, or a product is added to a wish-list or shopping cart. The system must notify the user with appropriate animations, and/or messages that inform them along the way to the intended conversion (e.g., buying a product).
2. Match Between the System and the “Real” World
The user must be able to understand what is being communicated through simple wording. If you’re using industry-specific jargon to communicate with your users, and they aren’t familiar with it, you’ll send mixed signals that confuse and alienate users. Enter the KISS method here.
Example: Speak the same language. Properly labeling areas of your website with universally accepted terms like “Shopping Cart” instead of “Product Bucket”. Trust us, we’ve seen a few of these along the way. Using “About Us” instead of “Staff Directory” is another example.
3. User Control and Freedom
The user must be guided along their digital journey with confirmation methods when completing an action. If they add something to a shopping cart, what’s the next logical step to completing the purchase? Alternatively, they must be able to back out of a function easily.
Example: No one likes feeling trapped. An undo function for when a mistake is made, an appropriately placed CANCEL or CLOSE buttons in modals and pop-ups, etc.
4. Consistency and Standards
Utilize universally accepted iconography, layouts and conventions.
Example: Be predictable in a good way. Use a shopping cart icon to identify where the user can see their intended purchases. Making the brand logo clickable so it returns the user to the home page. Avoiding underlining of text for emphasis, as this will look like a link.
5. Error Prevention
Confirm user actions to avoid unintended consequences that cannot be undone.
Example: Past regrets should not be repeated lessons. When a user wishes to delete something, display a confirmation message asking them to confirm the action, with messaging to indicate the intended consequence. (e.g., “Are you sure you want to delete this. You cannot undo this action.”)
6. Recognition Rather than Recall
Prioritize recognition of elements rather than forcing the user to recall something. The latter increases cognitive effort and can lead to frustration.
Example: Make it love at first click. Pre-populate drop-down fields with selectors (e.g., country lists, date picker, etc.) instead of forcing users to type it in. Going back to using universally accepted iconography, use a gear icon to indicate settings; or a red button background colour to indicate a CANCEL or DELETE function.
7. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Offer different ways to accomplish tasks so that all user levels from beginners to novices can help accelerate their digital journey.
Example: Love the flexibility–easy hints for beginners, fast shortcuts for experts. Subtle hints go a long way. For beginners who are unfamiliar with the product, display easy-to-understand control elements to navigate the digital property (e.g., Tool-tip pop-ups that can be turned on and off). For advanced users, offer quicker navigation methods like keyboard shortcuts or advanced mouse gestures like drag-and-drop.
8. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
There is a fine line between a signal to noise ratio. Minimal design doesn’t have to be boring and it should guide the user experience to their intended goal. Alternatively, if a design must lean toward complexity, it should so strategically…always with the usability in mind. However, the old adage goes: Less is more.
Example: Simplicity is often the direct path to the heart. A clean, uncluttered layout with a colour palette and good typography that is easy on the eyes and adheres to proper accessibility principles. Properly spaced and formatted images and text blocks (this includes lists) that guide the user’s eyes when read in depth or quickly scanned. Regardless of how long the user spends on each page, ask yourself: How can I convey the message as clearly and concisely as possible?
9. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors
If a user encounters an error message or hits a road block, provide an accessible and easy to understand solution that is jargon free, with support links for encounters with more complexity.
Example: Clear, caring messages will encourage the user. In the unfortunate event a user is shown an error message, tell them what happened and why and offer a simple passage out of it. Or at least provide informative links (to support pages or forums) to help them understand the issue and help complete their journey.
10. Help and Documentation
Expanding on #9, the tenth and final principle encompasses two types of support: Proactive and Reactive.
Example: Woo them with support and rescue them from potential heartbreak. The goal of Proactive help is to get users familiar with the digital property. Supporting documentation and video guides are the 24/7 training personnel to help them when live support is not available. Reactive help answers questions and helps users to troubleshoot problems, ideally in an easy to understand way that reduces points of tension.
Bottom Line
To use the book editor analogy, in the same way they help get a book to market, think of Heuristical QA as a constant check-in process during the life-cycle of a website or mobile app project. It ensures adherence to design and requirements, constantly tests the integrity of development work along the way and helps identify inconsistencies that might pop-up at various checkpoints along the way.
Heuristic evaluations are typically considered most valuable when done early in the concept and prototype phases for informing requirements, but we feel it remains a valuable guide during the pre-launch and post-launch phases as well.
For more in-depth reading on Jakob Nielson’s 10 Usability Heuristics For Interface Design, follow this link to his website.
Do you need help with the User Acceptance or Q/A for your next project? or you just want to know more?
Schedule a quick FREE 15 or 30-minute chat We are eager to hear how we can help.