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Great design is defined by the experience it creates for a user. It is the feeling they get when they are interacting with or thinking about a product or service. But users are individuals, with different thoughts, feelings, and experiences that affect their perceptions and influence their interactions.
When we use Expert Reviews, we are able to more closely understand the fundamental components of a particular product, platform, or service. By evaluating experiences holistically, we can begin to uncover usability strengths as well as problems. A problem by definition is a complication, something unwelcome or harmful that needs to be overcome. But in practice, problems are opportunities. They allow us the room to reframe a design and innovate, delivering a better experience to the end-user.
In life, there are straightforward rules we all follow. These rules of thumb are developed based on past experiences and interactions and are both personal and universal in nature. For example, we all know that touching a hot stove will result in a burn, a lesson passed down by each family to the next generation early in life, and so on. But our views on safety may shift as we age based on personal experiences, leading some to leave their front doors unlocked while others flip the deadbolt. These heuristics are tools that help us make quick decisions, building off of what we have learned previously, and being shaped during each interaction we have moving forward.
In design, we do the same, following a series of Usability Heuristics that allow us to inspect and uncover usability problems/opportunities. By measuring them against universally established usability principles we can judge whether each component “follows the rules”. Expert Reviews go a step further, using the personal expertise of a user experience (UX) designer to review and reflect on their past experiences and more thoroughly expand on a usability inspection.
At any point in the design cycle, an Expert Review can be conducted and be of value. It can serve different purposes from kicking off a research project to aid in Discovery and establish goals and objectives, to conditioning an internal team to stay sharp and validate their product’s usability overtime against their own design and competitors.