One of the most valuable tools in your product toolkit is the ability to perform a UX audit. When your product isn’t performing as expected or is facing issues, an audit can help identify the root causes.

It can help us uncover why a product has problems and gives us actionable recommendations to fix those issues and improve the experience.

The steps in a UX audit tend to be different based on the project’s time, budget and the designer doing it. Some audits are brief, lasting a day or two, while others may span several weeks.

We’ve outlined the steps for a UX audit here. Each task can be scaled up or down based on your time and budget, so keep that in mind as you follow this guide.

Step by Step UX audit

1. Align with business objectives

The first step in any UX audit must be to understand the business’s goals for the product. If you're part of an in-house UX team, you probably already know these really well. But, if you are unfamiliar with the product, you need a way to uncover these objectives.

The best way to understand business objectives is to speak with the people who have a vested interest in the product, like product managers, developers, marketers, sales, and customer service. Each interview should gather their perspective on what’s working and what isn’t, and what the product needs to do to improve.

My favourite question to ask is this:

If you had a magic wand and could fix any part of the product instantly what would it be, and why?

These interviews should give you a good understanding of the company’s goals. If a company wants to “increase conversions,” you need to clarify if this means selling more of a specific product, increasing activation, boosting overall sales, or something else. Stakeholder interviews will shine some light on these specifics.

The one time you should avoid interviews is if you have more than 10 stakeholders. The amount of time in meetings, and the logistical nightmare of coordinating all those calendar appointments is a good excuse to create a survey instead. I like to back this up with a video quickly giving steakholders the context before asking them to answer your questions. Respect people time, you'll get better insights.

Share the findings from this stage with your team to ensure they agree with the outlined business objectives and understand the audit's direction.

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2. Know your users

Begin by defining what you aim to achieve with the UX audit. Speak to your stakeholders to understand their expectations and identify key areas of concern. This helps in setting specific, measurable goals that guide the process and we're working towards what the business cares about.

Create or lean on existing user personas. These are fictional characters that represent your customers. Some clients already have user data from surveys or other contacts. You might also learn about users during stakeholder interviews. Use this information to build personas that reflect your audience.

If you have more time, interview the product’s end users.  Show them the product. Ask about their experience. Use a consistent approach with each interview. This will give you clear insights into your users’ needs and behaviours. The magic number of users to speak to is around five to ten people. Jakob Nielsen and Tom Landauer found that testing with 5 people uncovered 85% of the usability issues in the product being tested, and with each additional new participant added to the sample, fewer and fewer new usability issues were noted.

3. Create user flows

Next, turn your user insights into user flows. These are basically a bunch of screenshots of your product, placed in a flow diagram arrangement. My favourite tools for doing these are, FigJam, Miro, and sometimes a meeting room wall. These flows map out user journey toward their objectives and the steps they take within the product. Identify where users might struggle or go off course.

User flows should stem from your user personas. But also use information from stakeholder interviews, surveys, and user interviews. This ensures a comprehensive view of the user journey.

4. Collect the data

If you want to make data informed decisions, gather it before the audit. This includes user feedback, product analytics, and past audit reports. This preliminary data helps establish a baseline and identify potential problem areas.

Analytics tools like Google Analytics and user feedback platforms can provide valuable insights into user behaviour and performance metrics. Assuming your funnels have been setup correctly.

Gather relevant data to understand how users interact with your product. This includes:

• Analytics Data: Use tools like GA and Hotjar to collect quantitative data on user behaviour, such as page views, drop-off points, and conversion rates.
• User Feedback: Collect qualitative data from user feedback like support tickets, reviews and ratings to understand user pain points that were bad enough for your user to take the time to say how bad it was!
• Previous Reports: Chances are if someone has done an audit before, it's probably way out of date. But if the product hasn't changed much, there might still be some gold nuggets of wisdom in there, it's worth checking

If at this point it's clear you've got little to no data to go off, and there's nothing setup on the product to gather any data, focus on changing that first. Get the team behind the idea of establishing a baseline to compare against so they can measure the impact of the changes for the business to see.

Some great tools that might help you here: Microsoft Clarity, Mixpanel, Quantum Metric, Mouseflow, UXCam

5. Heuristic Evaluation

Conduct a heuristic evaluation to systematically identify usability issues. Evaluate the product against Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, document the issues the heuristics help you uncover as you go. My favourite place for these issues is as sticky notes on my user flow diagram. Here's what you'll be looking out for.

1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and documentation

6. Identify Key Trends and Patterns

Analyse the collected data to identify key trends and patterns. This involves:

• Data Analysis: Use tools like Excel or data visualisation software to identify common issues and trends in user behaviour.

7. Prioritise Issues

Prioritising issues is crucial for focusing on the most impactful improvements first. Several methods can be used for this:

• Impact-Effort Matrix: This matrix helps you evaluate issues based on their potential impact and the effort required to fix them. High-impact, low-effort issues should be addressed first.
• MoSCoW Method: Categorise issues into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have to determine their priority.
• Kano Model: Classify issues based on their impact on customer satisfaction to decide which features will delight users the most.

8. Build a Report

Compile your findings into a report that should include:

• User Flow Diagram: Screenshot and plot out the steps users take to achieve their goals, when you identify a pain point, mark it on the flow. Whiteboard tools like FigJam and Miro are great for this.
• Pain Points: Document the pain points you identified in the user flow. Backed them up with data where you can.
• Recommendations: Provide actionable recommendations for addressing the identified issues, including design changes, feature improvements, and other enhancements.

Optionally you could go into more detail with:

• User Demographics and Personas: Describe the user groups and how pain paints might impact them specifically. Don't have any? Learn how to create user personas.
• Data sources: I tend to provide links to the dashboards and reports I get my data insights from so that anyone can double-check my work

9. Share Findings

Present the report to your stakeholders, ensuring they understand the findings and recommendations. This involves:

• Stakeholder Presentation: Present the key findings and suggested improvements using clear and concise visuals. This is where your user flow comes in handy.
• Assigning Responsibilities: Assign specific tasks to team members and set timelines for implementing the changes.
• Follow-Up: Plan follow-up audits to measure the impact of the changes and ensure continuous improvement.

10. Implement Changes

With the blessing of your stakeholders and the alignment you've already done with you team you now know what you should be working on first. Do the work, measure the result, rinse, and repeat.

11. Measure and Monitor the Impact

After implementing changes based on UX audit recommendations, continuously measure and monitor their impact. Use analytics tools to track key performance indicators such as user engagement, retention rates, and conversion rates. Regularly review these metrics to assess the effectiveness of your improvements and identify new areas for enhancement.

Further Research

If you've struggled to come up with solutions to any of the pain points you identified there are a few other ways you dig deeper and get fresh perspectives.

Usability Testing

Conduct both moderated and unmoderated usability tests to observe real users interacting with the product. Tools like Maze and UserTesting can facilitate remote testing, providing insights into user behaviour and identifying areas of confusion or frustration.

Accessibility Assessment

Ensure the product meets accessibility standards, making it usable for people with disabilities. This includes evaluating compliance with guidelines such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure all users can access and use your product effectively.

Visual Audit

Assess the product’s user interface for consistency, clarity, and aesthetic appeal. This involves examining visual design elements, layout, and overall user interface structure to ensure it meets usability standards.

A UI audit focuses specifically on the user interface components, evaluating elements such as buttons, menus, icons, and typography. The goal is to ensure consistency, clarity, and intuitive design across the entire interface.

Tools and Resources

To conduct an effective UX audit, leveraging the right tools and resources is essential. Here’s a list of useful tools and resources to help.

Analytics Tools

Google Analytics: Provides comprehensive data on user behaviour, such as page views, session duration, and bounce rates. It helps identify areas where users may be experiencing difficulties.

Hotjar: Offers heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback polls. These features allow you to see how users interact with your site and identify usability issues.

Microsoft Clarity: A free tool that offers heatmaps, session recordings, and insights into user behavior, helping identify user experience issues.

Mixpanel: Tracks user interactions with web and mobile applications and provides insights to improve user engagement and retention.

Amplitude: Helps in understanding user behavior through advanced analytics, providing insights to drive user engagement and growth.

Kissmetrics: Focuses on tracking individual and group behaviour to help improve user engagement and retention.

UX Research Tools

Maze: Facilitates remote usability testing and user feedback collection. It provides actionable insights into user behavior and preferences.

UserTesting: Enables you to conduct moderated and unmoderated usability tests with real users. It provides video recordings and in-depth analysis of user interactions.

Survey and Feedback Tools

SurveyMonkey: Allows you to create and distribute surveys to gather user feedback. It helps understand user satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

Qualtrics: A powerful tool for creating detailed surveys and analysing user feedback. It helps uncover user pain points and preferences.

Prototyping Tools

Figma: A collaborative interface design tool that allows you to create and test prototypes. It helps visualise changes and gather user feedback before implementation.

ProtoPie: Allows for the creation of highly interactive prototypes that can be tested and refined based on user feedback.

Origami Studio by Facebook: A free design tool for creating interactive UI prototypes, developed by Facebook.

Accessibility Tools

WAVE: An accessibility evaluation tool that helps identify issues with your site’s compliance with accessibility standards. It provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content.

Axe: A comprehensive accessibility testing tool that integrates with browsers and other tools. It helps ensure your product is usable for all users, including those with disabilities.