Nielsen's heuristics

Jakob Nielsen's 10 heuristics are general principles of interface ergonomics published in 1994 and revised in 2020. They serve as an evaluation grid for UX audits: visibility of system status, match between the system and the real world, user freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than memorisation, flexibility and efficiency, aesthetics and minimalism, help with error handling, help and documentation.

You go through the interface with each heuristic in mind, noting the violations observed and their severity (from 0: not a problem, to 4: ergonomic catastrophe). To be reliable, the evaluation should be carried out by 3 to 5 independent experts whose results are then consolidated. A single evaluator detects about 35% of problems; five detect 75%.

Both are ergonomic evaluation frameworks, but with different granularity. Nielsen's 10 heuristics are general principles, easy to memorise and to apply quickly. Bastien and Scapin's 18 criteria are more precise and broken down: they distinguish, for example, guidance, workload, explicit control and adaptability where Nielsen handles all of that under two or three heuristics. Bastien and Scapin's criteria are more rigorous but more complex to master.

Yes, because they describe fundamental cognitive principles that don't change with design trends. The 2020 update adapted the wording to current interfaces without changing the substance. Some adjustments are needed for voice interfaces, augmented reality or chatbots, but the basic principles (informing the user, giving them control, reducing memory load) remain universally valid.

Yes, and it's often recommended depending on the context. For public interfaces, you complement them with the WCAG criteria for accessibility. For government services, with the Opquast framework. For highly specialised interfaces (medical, industrial), specific sector frameworks exist. Nielsen provides a generalist base that's quick to apply; sector frameworks go deeper into the dimensions critical to a given field.