What is a UX audit?

If you have multiple teams working on your website at the same time, it’s often challenging to maintain perfect consistency in design and usability. Regular UX design audits allow designers to assess the state of the work being done and uncover issues with continuity, consistency, accessibility, and usability. A perfect UX not only affects the user experience, but can improve your website’s conversion rate.

What is an UX audit?

A UX audit is a quality assurance process that reviews an existing product to ensure that it actually meets business requirements, for a great user experience and accessibility.

A design audit allows UX designers to identify user problems and business opportunities using real data. Validation during the design process is very important, as it can avoid mistakes that could be much more challenging and subsequently very expensive to fix in the live environment.

During a UX audit, the auditor measures, tests and analyzes the following data:

– Broken links

– Design inconsistencies – fonts, colors, patterns, etc.

– Inconsistencies in layout and hierarchy

– Outdated content

– Bottlenecks and obstacles in the customer journey

– Usability and accessibility

– Usability heuristics

– Brand and messaging

– Reviewing product design with business and user goals in mind

– Analysis of traffic, engagement, conversion rate, customer retention and sales

– Regulatory compliance (GDPR, etc.)

At the end of the audit, the auditors produce a report with actionable recommendations to fix any problems or optimize the product.

When to conduct a UX design audit?

Teams typically conduct a UX audit as part of the quality assurance process whenever they release a major product update or product redesign. Organizations can also schedule regular UX audits to ensure the product is meeting business and user goals.

Who performs the UX audit?

Who conducts a UX audit depends on the size of the company and the resources available. Many small companies and start-ups are likely to use in-house design teams to conduct UX audits.

To get an objective, unbiased UX audit, some organizations use external auditors to evaluate their products and deliver the resulting report. Large companies can also use specialist UX design agencies, which can be expensive but produce thorough audits with meaningful feedback and insights. Smaller companies and startups may consider hiring an outsourced firm to get similar results.

Regular design audits are essential to determine how products align with your company’s user experience and business goals. If you’re conducting your first UX audit, you need to have a clear UX strategy in place so that auditors have metrics, goals, and KPIs to guide them.

author: TRIXIT s.r.o.

picture: openai.com