Heuristics for developers are sessions I run as an introduction to design for development teams. They focus on the Usability Heuristics written by Nielsen Norman, and take a practical approach with examples to getting involved in design decisions.
How the session works
I generally run this session as interactive as I can - first introducing the usability heuristics and setting expectations, providing handouts for reference, and then inviting small groups to critique an application or tool they’re familiar with.
I try to set reasonable expectations for the usability heuristics by introducing them as closer to the “making it up as you go along” end of the scale, where “co-designing in situ with designers and users” is at the other end. I think it’s important that what is essentially a checklist for avoiding bad practice isn’t seen as a replacement for a thorough design process.
I then introduce each heuristic with at least one example from the real internet world. For example, I introduce the “Visibility of system status” heuristic by discussing the variety of sounds twitter uses to reflect the status of a tweet.
Some of my other favourite examples include:
Match between system and real world: Medium’s highlight interaction
Medium’s highlighting interaction is an interesting example of matching between your system and the real world. This is a heuristic that isn’t hugely popular these days - unlike the start of the apple movement, when skeumorphism tried to represent all digital interfaces as their pre-digital counterpart, we’re very minimalist in the 2020s. However, I think Medium have done a great job of striking the balance here between introducing a non digital concept to their system, without unnecessary complexity or tackiness.
Consistency and standards
I enjoy talking about the “like” interaction as essentially a standard of the web today. I extend this to Google’s failed social platform and suggest that the “+1” mechanic they used rather than the “like” might be what deterred potential adopters.
I conclude the talk with some of the ways that the usability heuristics are employed by design teams - including reviews, evaluations, or checklists, sharing screenshots of such documents. To loop back to my introduction, I recognise that the usability heuristics isn’t a driving force for innovation, but suggest that in conjunction with websites such as collectui.co, they can be a good way to brainstorm alternative methods for meeting the user’s needs.
Feedback i’ve received
“(enjoyed) the activity and the hand out; liked how you made it applicable to IBM offerings and not generic which helped with participant engagement”
“It was a complete new approach and way of thinking to me”
“The handouts were great!”