TY - GEN
T1 - A Practical Approach for Novice Evaluators in Heuristic Evaluations
T2 - 14th International Conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability, DUXU 2025, held as part of the 27th HCI International Conference, HCII 2025
AU - Falconi, Fiorella
AU - Huamán, Fátima Yola Guadalupe
AU - Romero, Binny
AU - Salazar, Cristopher
AU - Moquillaza, Arturo
AU - Paz, Freddy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Heuristic evaluation is a method that involves the application of a set of predefined guidelines to evaluate whether an interface is intuitive, user-friendly, and effective. This method also serves to identify usability issues that might hinder the User Experience. Despite its simplicity and effectiveness, one of the most significant challenges in implementing it lies in adequately training new specialists to conduct these evaluations accurately and consistently. This paper describes a structured and practical approach developed within a university laboratory environment to train three novice students to perform heuristic evaluations. The aim was to foster the development of future usability professionals skilled in this crucial area of expertise. The digital product selected for evaluation was an interactive prototype, which represents the redesigned website of a hospital in Peru. This prototype was chosen due to the pressing need to improve digital platforms within the healthcare sector. In this domain, usability is critically important because it directly impacts patients’ safety, healthcare personnel's efficiency, and users’ overall satisfaction. The results revealed that, by the conclusion of the sessions, the novice evaluators were able to identify 25 usability problems in the website prototype. This approach effectively identified significant usability problems and demonstrated its value in equipping novice evaluators with a solid understanding of heuristic principles and their practical application. Moreover, the structured process, combined with using an interactive prototype as the study object, provided participants with a well-rounded and comprehensive learning experience. The study concludes that implementing structured training programs for novice evaluators in heuristic evaluation within academic settings is a viable and promising strategy to increase the pool of skilled usability professionals. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of employing formal methodologies to ensure a rigorous and effective evaluation process.
AB - Heuristic evaluation is a method that involves the application of a set of predefined guidelines to evaluate whether an interface is intuitive, user-friendly, and effective. This method also serves to identify usability issues that might hinder the User Experience. Despite its simplicity and effectiveness, one of the most significant challenges in implementing it lies in adequately training new specialists to conduct these evaluations accurately and consistently. This paper describes a structured and practical approach developed within a university laboratory environment to train three novice students to perform heuristic evaluations. The aim was to foster the development of future usability professionals skilled in this crucial area of expertise. The digital product selected for evaluation was an interactive prototype, which represents the redesigned website of a hospital in Peru. This prototype was chosen due to the pressing need to improve digital platforms within the healthcare sector. In this domain, usability is critically important because it directly impacts patients’ safety, healthcare personnel's efficiency, and users’ overall satisfaction. The results revealed that, by the conclusion of the sessions, the novice evaluators were able to identify 25 usability problems in the website prototype. This approach effectively identified significant usability problems and demonstrated its value in equipping novice evaluators with a solid understanding of heuristic principles and their practical application. Moreover, the structured process, combined with using an interactive prototype as the study object, provided participants with a well-rounded and comprehensive learning experience. The study concludes that implementing structured training programs for novice evaluators in heuristic evaluation within academic settings is a viable and promising strategy to increase the pool of skilled usability professionals. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of employing formal methodologies to ensure a rigorous and effective evaluation process.
KW - Case Study
KW - Healthcare
KW - Heuristic Evaluation
KW - Human-Computer Interaction
KW - Usability
KW - User Experience
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105008224192
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-93224-3_4
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-93224-3_4
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105008224192
SN - 9783031932236
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 49
EP - 65
BT - Design, User Experience, and Usability - 14th International Conference, DUXU 2025, Held as Part of the 27th HCI International Conference, HCII 2025, Proceedings
A2 - Schrepp, Martin
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Y2 - 22 June 2025 through 27 June 2025
ER -
