A User Experience Audit (UX Audit) is a method of identifying less-than-perfect areas of a digital product, revealing which parts of a site or app are causing users headaches and stymieing conversions. A UX audit, like a financial audit, employs empirical methods to broaden an existing situation and provide heuristics-based recommendations for improvements, in this case, user-centric enhancements. Finally, a UX audit should inform you on how to increase conversions by making it easier for users to achieve their objectives on your website or software.
How to conduct UX Audit?
So there you have it: all the essential steps for conducting a UX audit! To summarise:
- Take the time at the start of a UX audit to understand the business objectives for the digital product being audited. Stakeholder interviews are one of the most effective ways to accomplish this.
- Understanding the product’s users and their goals is the second step in a UX audit. User interviews can be used to gather information about users, and based on what is learned in these interviews, user personas and user flows can be created.
•A review of a website or mobile analytics can provide quantitative information on how users interact with a digital product. This information should be collected over a long enough period of time to identify trends. - A usability heuristic evaluation, in which you explore the digital product from the user’s perspective, is another important component of a UX audit. A pre-defined set of heuristics should guide this process.
- Finally, the audit data should be analyzed, condensed, and compiled into a report that clearly communicates the findings to the client. The client should also be given a series of actionable recommendations that address the issues discovered during the audit.
How to Prepare for a UX Audit?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to conducting a UX audit:
- Recognize business objectives.
- Learn about the users.
- Analyze analytics.
- Important takeaways.
- Complete a heuristic analysis.
- Recognize the user’s objectives.
- Make recommendations based on your findings.
Usability Heuristics
Usability heuristics are guidelines that ensure user interface design is comprehensive, simple, and user-friendly. They can be used as guidelines when developing new programs, mobile apps, or websites that prioritize the user experience.
1. Visibility of system status
Ascertain that users are aware of the current system state in order to comprehend the implications of their interactions and the following steps.
2. Match between the system and the real word
To connect with users, designs must incorporate common words, phrases, and concepts. Products must be rational and intuitive so that consumers may easily execute tasks and achieve their objectives.
3. User control and freedom
Users should have total control over their designs, including the option to modify, leave, or redo jobs and processes. For example, giving a “back” button or a mechanism to update/delete shopping cart items during user flows.
4. Consistency and standards
Design inconsistency can raise consumers’ cognitive strain, resulting in a poor product experience. By adhering to industry standards and keeping design consistency, you may reduce the quantity of information consumers must learn to utilize your product.
5. Error prevention
Designers must use extreme vigilance in order to minimize or remove error-prone circumstances.
6. Recognition rather than recall
Users should not have to recall what buttons, actions, and components do. User interfaces must increase recognition to lessen the cognitive burden.
7. Usability and adaptability
A digital product should provide consumers with the ability to tailor their preferred workflow. Enabling users to save “favorites” links to their most often used features, for example.
8. Minimalist and aesthetically pleasing design
The use of unnecessary material and UI components that aren’t valuable to consumers should be avoided. A basic screen layout will help consumers discover what they need more quickly.
9. Assist users in identifying, diagnosing, and recovering from errors
Error messages should provide consumers with simple ways to address the problem. Provide links to product documentation or customer assistance instead of nonsensical error numbers.
10. Assistance and documentation
Product documentation should help customers comprehend the product’s features and complete specified activities.
Auditors may need to examine a mix of user testing and product analytics to audit these 10 usability criteria.
User encounter
Because UX design is built on a human-centered approach, the most essential component of a design audit is likely to be assessing your product’s user experience.
Auditors will examine analytics and interaction data to assess the design’s influence on user flows, navigation, and overall user experience. To properly comprehend a problem that jumps out in analytics data, auditors may do or propose usability testing.
System Assessment in Design
A company’s design system is crucial for ensuring continuity and uniformity. Auditors must check the design system of the product to ensure that the UI components and design patterns fulfill the user experience goals and branding requirements.
Accessibility
Accessibility is essential for ensuring that a product is usable by all users. Auditors must assess if the color palette, typefaces, and components are accessible to those who are blind or visually impaired. They may also take into account if the device allows customers to move between bright and dark settings in order to accommodate persons with sensitive eyesight.
Checklist for UX Audit
Auditors must be guided by a UX audit checklist from early preparation to the final audit report.
Use UXPin’s 23-Point UX Checklist to eliminate common design errors before launching your final product to improve the overall user experience. You may also use this 23-point checklist as a reference for creating your audit checklist.
Benefits of having UX Audit
Increased lead flow
Following the resolution of serious difficulties, your website lead flow may rise by 10% or more next month. Being aware of friction areas and cognitive overloads that lead to low conversions prior to a redesign assists in fixing them. After a well-executed UX audit and research-based improvements/redesign, conversions can rise by up to 75%.
Enhanced customer loyalty
Greater user engagement, more accessible information, faster job completion, fewer support calls, and other advantages of an intelligent redesign can assist boost customer loyalty and retention, as well as create a positive brand impression.
A better understanding of your website’s potential
A thorough UX assessment can help you understand your website’s strengths and suggest areas for growth, in addition to any shortcomings.
Summary
Regular design audits are essential for determining how products align with user experience and business objectives. If you are conducting your first UX audit, you must have a clear UX strategy, so auditors have benchmarks, objectives, and KPIs to measure against.
Jakob Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics provide an excellent foundation for auditors to test the components and features of a product. Auditors should apply these usability heuristics to objectively examine a product and ask questions from the user’s point of view.
In 2023, UX design will continue to play a critical role in the success of businesses. By prioritizing UX design, businesses can create user-centric websites and applications that drive engagement, build customer loyalty, and ultimately increase sales.
Why choose LEZ Solutions?
Investing in a UX Audit can help businesses identify areas for improvement and create a roadmap for achieving their UX design goals. If you’re looking to improve your website or app’s user experience, consider partnering with LEZ Solutions for a comprehensive UX Audit.
Contact us today to learn more about our UX design audit services.
