Generic heuristics miss domain-specific failure modes and require additional entries

What it is

Domain-specific heuristics supplement generic checklists where they are blind: patient-dose matching in healthcare, time zones and settlement dates in finance, permission handover in industry, version effectiveness in legal work, and confidence or data drift in machine-learning systems. Generic criteria can reveal feedback or recovery gaps, but do not automatically ask domain constraints.

Why it happens

Domain failures depend on professional rules, responsibility chains, regulation, and exception flows; the error may exist while the interface looks “successful.” Generic entries are too abstract to enumerate dosage units, approval order, audit fields, or model boundaries. Domain entries turn those constraints into inspectable cues: required objects, state combinations, permissions, warnings, and blocking conditions.

Where it stops holding

Not every professional product needs a large special set. If generic entries plus domain regulation already decide the issue, do not duplicate. Domain heuristics are also not a business-rules inventory; they focus on how the interface helps users satisfy rules, detect conflicts, and recover, rather than replacing training or audit.

Applying it

• Inventory interface-related failures from domain incidents, audit findings, support tickets, and expert walkthroughs.
• Turn frequent constraints into inspection questions, such as “Are patient, dose, unit, and time basis visible together?”
• Clarify the division between generic and domain entries to avoid duplicate counting.
• Have domain experts review entries to confirm that checkpoints correspond to real risk.

Related

• Same group: B3.20.2 Domain heuristics should be induced from the domain’s real problem base, not generic entries reworded · B3.20.3 A qualified entry must let two evaluators independently reach the same conclusion · B3.20.4 Domain heuristics need retrospective testing against known problems; untested entries should not ship
• Nearby: Y1 Industrial and Safety-critical Systems · Q2 Usability Evaluation
• Search terms: domain-specific heuristics · expert review · domain constraints