Heuristic Principles

Heuristic Principles are usability guidelines or rules of thumb used to evaluate and improve the design of user interfaces. They include principles like visibility of system status, consistency and standards, error prevention, and user control. Heuristic evaluations help identify design issues early in the process, improving usability and user satisfaction.

Nielsen's 10 heuristics are the most widely used framework for evaluating interface usability and are a practical checklist for any product review. Unlike more complex frameworks, they're fast to apply and produce actionable findings — 'this error message violates the heuristic of helping users recognize and recover from errors' is a more specific and actionable critique than 'this doesn't feel right.' Every product manager and designer should know these 10 principles by heart.

The heuristic of 'Match between system and the real world' explains why Trash/Recycle Bin terminology works (users understand the metaphor) while 'Terminate session and delete all associated state' does not — real-world language makes interfaces immediately comprehensible without needing documentation.