UX CHECK

Improve your website's UX.

UX Check is a Chrome Extension that helps you identify usability issues through a heuristic evaluation.

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Free for personal & commercial use

See my Medium post

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

UX Check brings up a list of Nielsen's 10 heuristics to help you identify issues - or you can create a custom list.
Open pane
Identify
Annotate
Export

WHAT IS A HEURISTIC EVALUATION?

A lightweight evaluation that allows you to identify usability issues without the involvement of users.

In the 90's Jakob Nielsen put together a list of ten heuristics, or principles, that websites should adhere to. These heuristics are still very relevant today, and allow you analyze your website fairly cheaply relative to the cost of a user test.

As a developer or designer, you should regard heuristic evaluations as an inexpensive sanity test to easily identify potential problems. Walk through your website and take a note of any UI elements that break any of Nielsen's 10 heuristics.

Visit the Nielsen Norman Group's website for more articles on heuristic evaluations: http://www.nngroup.com/topic/heuristic-evaluation/

NIELSEN'S TENTHE HEURISTICS

Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
Visibility of system status
Match between 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
Hover over a heuristic on the left.
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

CUSTOM HEURISTICS

Now you can create your own heuristics list and run an evaluation using that list. This might be your company's visual design guidelines, or another list of usability principles that you've found to be helpful.

To create a custom list, go to the Settings panel.