User-Centered Design Stories

Planning and Performing a Heuristic Evaluation 273

and the same problems may not be rated at the same severity. Heuristic

evaluations can produce false positives and, if not well managed, can take as

many resources as a usability study. It also does not provide any quantitative

data,” Michael explained.

“Honestly Michael, the fact that problems found may not line up with

those of our target users worries me,” James confessed. “However, we are

not in a position to take any chances with this release—we need this product

to succeed. I am familiar with the work you’ve done and understand you

are one of the leading experts in small-screen-device usability,” ...