Bastien and Scapin's criteria

Bastien and Scapin's criteria are a framework of 18 ergonomic criteria grouped into 8 categories, published in 1997 by INRIA. They are used to evaluate the ergonomic quality of an interface: guidance, workload, explicit control, adaptability, error management, consistency, significance of codes and headings, compatibility. It is one of the two major ergonomic audit frameworks, alongside Nielsen's heuristics.

Both evaluate the ergonomic quality of an interface, but at a different level of granularity. Nielsen's 10 heuristics are general principles, quick to memorise and to apply. Bastien and Scapin's 18 criteria are more precise and broken down: they distinguish, for example, guidance, workload and explicit control where Nielsen covers all of this under two or three heuristics. Bastien and Scapin's criteria are more rigorous but require greater expertise.

You go through the interface criterion by criterion, noting the violations observed and their severity. Each problem is linked to one or more criteria, which makes it possible to produce a structured analysis and to prioritise the fixes. To be reliable, the evaluation should be carried out by 3 to 5 independent experts whose results are then consolidated. The standard severity scale ranges from 0 (not a problem) to 4 (blocking problem).

They were originally designed for desktop interfaces and are therefore more naturally suited to classic web interfaces. For mobile interfaces, some criteria have to be interpreted in the context of touch and screen size constraints. Adaptations exist, and they are often combined with platform-specific guidelines (Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Material Design) for a complete audit.

Yes, and it is often recommended. For public-facing interfaces, they are complemented with the WCAG criteria for accessibility and with Opquast for overall web quality. For government services, the RGAA is added. Bastien and Scapin's criteria cover the ergonomics of the interface; these complementary standards cover the accessibility, performance and technical best practices that fall outside their scope.