The usability specialist’s favourite: Heuristic evaluation
Builder.com (UK) — “It’s the process of judging the extent to which various elements of an interface comply with recognised usability principles (or ‘heuristics’). It’s a systematic process of inspection intended to identify specific usability problems which you can then address throughout the iterative design of the product. You can carry out heuristic evaluation on design specifications or even paper mock-ups with good effect — for this reason it is often employed very early on in the design cycle before a complete product exists.”
Not for advanced usability folks. Serves as a nice introduction.