Heuristic review brief
Conduct a structured expert review using realistic scenarios, relevant principles, clear evidence, and consistent severity ratings.
UX research and audits · 45 min · Advanced · 33 questions
Inspection design
Which user goals should evaluators inspect?
Which user roles should each scenario represent?
Which realistic data does each scenario require?
Which failure paths should evaluators inspect?
Review criteria
Which usability heuristics apply to this product?
Which accessibility criteria apply?
Which content criteria apply?
Which trust criteria apply?
Which domain rules apply?
Evaluators and environment
Which product experience should evaluators bring?
Which domain expertise should evaluators bring?
Does the review need an accessibility specialist?
Which product build should evaluators use?
Which account and permissions should evaluators use?
Which locales should evaluators inspect?
Which assistive technology should evaluators use?
Finding evidence
Which scenario produced the finding?
At which step did the problem appear?
What did the product do?
Which principle did the behavior violate?
What could happen to the user because of it?
Severity
How much does the finding affect the task?
How often is the finding likely to occur?
How many users could encounter it?
Can users work around it?
Could the finding put data at risk?
Consolidation
Which findings describe the same symptom?
Which findings share a root cause?
How will evaluator disagreements be resolved?
Which finding may be a false positive?
Action
How specific should each recommendation be?
Who owns each finding?
What evidence will show that a finding is resolved?
How to use this brief
Use this brief as a bank of questions for the conversation. Choose what is relevant, mark covered questions as you go, and skip anything that has already been answered.
Use this brief when...
Use when an expert will inspect an interface against established usability principles.
Best used as: Research plan
- Category
- UX research and audits
- Discussion time
- 45 minutes
- Depth
- Advanced
- Last updated
- Jul 21, 2026
- Scope
- Design briefs
- Best used as
- Research plan
- Design roles
- UX researcher
- Audience
- UX and UI designersProduct designersProduct managersDesign leads
- Platforms
- ResearchWebMobile
- Company type
- B2BB2CEnterprise
- Product stage
- DiscoveryGrowthMature product
- Tags
- ux-research-and-auditsheuristic-reviewresearch-and-evaluationexpert-inspectionusability-review