The 10 usability heuristics are broad rules of thumb for interaction design, first defined by Jakob Nielsen in 1994. They are called heuristics because they describe good practice at a high level rather than as strict rules, so they apply to almost any interface.
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The ten cover visibility of system status, a match between the system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, helping users recover from errors, and help and documentation.

Why do usability heuristics matter?

They give teams a shared, lightweight checklist for judging a design without running a full user study. In a heuristic evaluation a few reviewers inspect an interface against the ten principles, which is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to catch common problems early.
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They also create a common vocabulary, so feedback like “this breaks visibility of system status” becomes specific and easy to act on, instead of a vague feeling that something is off.

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