In 1994, usability researcher Jakob Nielsen published 10 broad rules of thumb for good interface design. Three decades later, they're still the closest thing UX design has to a shared checklist — useful for critiquing any screen, including someone else's or your own.
| # | Heuristic | In plain language |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visibility of system status | Always show the user what's happening — loading, saved, in progress |
| 2 | Match between system and the real world | Use language and concepts the user already knows, not internal jargon |
| 3 | User control and freedom | Always give an obvious way to undo or back out of an action |
| 4 | Consistency and standards | The same word or icon should mean the same thing everywhere in the product |
| 5 | Error prevention | Design so mistakes are hard to make, not just easy to recover from |
| 6 | Recognition rather than recall | Show options rather than making a user remember what to type |
| 7 | Flexibility and efficiency of use | Let beginners get by easily, while giving experts shortcuts |
| 8 | Aesthetic and minimalist design | Every extra element competes for attention with what actually matters |
| 9 | Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors | Error messages in plain language, with a clear next step |
| 10 | Help and documentation | Ideally not needed, but available and easy to search when it is |
A heuristic evaluation means walking through a real screen or flow and checking it against this list, one item at a time, noting where it fails. It's one of the fastest, cheapest ways to catch usability problems — no users or testing sessions required, just this list and a critical eye.
Try it immediately
Pick any app on your phone right now and run through all 10 — most real products fail at least two or three of them. Spotting that is the actual skill this lesson is teaching.