Neilsen's heuristics are ten rough rules developed by Jacon Nielsen in the early 1990s as a form of discount usability, that is a way to ensure adequate UX which is more cost-effective than methods depending on continuous user evaluation. The heuristics have been highly influential, both in professional UX design and also in inspiring variations tuned to different kinds of systems and technologies.
The ten heuristics are:
- Visibility of System Status
- Match Between the System and the Real World
- User Control and Freedom
- Consistency and Standards
- Error Prevention
- Recognition Rather than Recall
- Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
- Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
- Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors
- Help and Documentation
Used in glossary entries: user experience, user experience design
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