heuristic-evaluationlisted

# Heuristic Evaluation (Expert UX Audit) A heuristic evaluation is a structured way for one or more people to inspect an interface against a set of usability principles ("heuristics") and surface the problems a designer would want to fix. It's fast, cheap, and needs no participants — which is its strength and its limit. It reliably catches the generic, recognizable problems (unclear labels, missing feedback, inconsistent patterns, dead ends), but it does **not** tell you what real users actually do, where they get genuinely stuck, or whether they succeed. Say this plainly to the user when relevant: a heuristic evaluation complements usability testing with real users, it doesn't replace it. Use this skill to run an evaluation end to end, or to help with any one piece of it (pick a heuristic set, write up an issue, rate severity, structure a report). ## How to run an evaluation ### 1. Set up the evaluation Before inspecting anything, pin down: - **What's being evaluated** — the whole product, one flow (e.g. onboarding, checkout), or a specific screen. A focused scope produces sharper findings. - **Who the users are and what they're trying to do.** Usability is relative to a user and a goal. "Is this clear?" only has an answer once you know clear *to whom, doing what*. Even a rough persona and top tasks sharpen every judgment. - **The context of use** — device, environment, expertise level, frequency of use. An expert tool used daily forgives density that a consume