How to Conduct a UX Audit: Examples and Methods

How do you think user experience (UX) is critical in today's digital world? Definitely! It can make your product more attractive for users or ruin it. This is why a UX audit is necessary.

Imagine you enter a beautiful shop with an inviting window display but a cluttered interior. You can't find the products you need, and so many items are in the wrong order. Then, it is hard to find the exit. How do you feel? Perhaps nervous, disappointed, and without any desire to come back. 

Similarly, a website or app that looks great but is difficult to navigate will quickly lose users. Fortunately, a UX audit helps to find these pain points, improve the product, and make your users happy! Our Arounda team shares experience and knowledge about the UX audit process. There is no more time to wait. Let's delve into the article. 

In this article:

• Learn how to conduct a user experience audit. 
• Discover the methods for UX audit and explore our examples.
• Get expert tips on how to conduct a UX audit.

What is a UX Audit?

Objectives of User Experience Audit 

Let's look at the key objectives:

• A UX audit evaluates a website or app to identify usability issues such as complex navigation, confusing interfaces, and obstacles to better user flow.
• It improves user satisfaction by creating an intuitive, engaging, and positive experience. A happy user will return and become your loyal customer. 
• A UX audit can identify why users do not complete the desired actions or leave the website/app. It suggests practical ideas for increasing conversion rates.

The main goals are impressive, right? But how do you know when a UX audit is a must? Let's find out.

When is a UX Audit Necessary?

People say: A stitch in time saves nine. Therefore, solve problems immediately before they become bigger. But when exactly is "immediately"? 

• If you notice a drop in user engagement metrics (time spent on site, page views, or repeat visits).
• If you see high bounce rates. It means that users leave your website or app almost immediately. 
• If you plan to redesign an app or site. A UX audit will clearly show you what to change, what works well, or whether you don't need a redesign at all.
• If you get negative feedback or your users often complain about usability issues. Listen to your customers - that's why you created the product, right? 
• If your conversion rates are stagnant. It's time to examine the user experience more closely and identify hidden barriers. 

Learn about key benefits of UX/UI design audit to get even more insights.

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Well, you've found a reason or reasons to audit UX. It's time to get ready! 

How to Prepare for UX Design Audit

Good preparation is the first step to a successful result. Do you agree? Here are the tasks for getting ready for a website user experience audit or UX design audit.

Task #1: Gather all the necessary tools and resources, including analytics, survey and feedback tools, and prototype and testing tools.

• Analytics tools: Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Mixpanel.
• Survey and feedback tools: SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and UserVoice.
• Prototype and testing tools: Sketch, Figma, and InVision.

Task #2: Set targets and KPIs for the UX audit, such as improving navigation, raising conversion rates, and increasing user satisfaction. Metrics for measuring success include completion rates, time on task, error rates, conversion rates, and others. 

Task #3: Form or find a team of UX designers, researchers, analysts, and stakeholders (product managers, marketing managers, and development leads).

If you complete all of these tasks, your UX audit process will run easily and effectively.  However, it can be difficult to find experienced team members on your own. Don't worry! Our Arounda experts are here to help. Expand your team with our professionals and get actionable insights to reach your goals. 

How to Conduct a UX Audit

We reached the beginning of the transformation. Our team has prepared a step-by-step guide to make your UX audit process pleasant and easy. 

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Step 1: Define goals and the scope

You should decide which components of your website or application the team will examine. It can be an entire site/app, or pages, specific sections, user flows... 

Step 2: Collect data for analytics review

Gather quantitative data using the analytics tools and resources from preparation task #1. They help you understand user behavior. You should concentrate on KPIs like page visits, session duration, bounce rates, and conversion rates. It is also important to gather qualitative data (user feedback). Then, analyze key metrics, identify patterns, and address usability issues.

Step 3: Conduct heuristic evaluation

This stage helps identify usability issues in a website or application. You should document findings to understand their impact on user experience. 

P.S. We explain how to conduct the heuristic evaluation in the following section.

Step 4: Make user testing

First, select participants from the target audience (current or new users). Next, conduct testing sessions to track user behavior and gather feedback on your website or app. Finally, analyze the results to identify trends and pain points.

Would you like to get expert tips for user testing? Read our article. 

Step 5: Gather and interpret the findings

Collect and analyze information from earlier steps, and highlight critical usability issues with visuals such as charts and heat maps. Then, prioritize and report the findings, create an action plan, and share the report with stakeholders for suggested actions.

Step 6: Implement recommendations

Create a plan outlining the actions, deadlines, team members, and their responsibilities.

Step 7: Track changes and schedule regular audits

To guarantee efficacy, monitor changes, user behavior, and key metrics. Schedule regular UX audits to improve the user experience over time and remain competitive.

The UX audit process needs careful planning and deployment. If you find the task complicated or require expert support, our team will help you to create the best user experience possible.

Methods for Conducting UX Audit

You can conduct a UX audit using a variety of approaches to gather detailed information about the user experience. We have collected some of the most effective techniques.

Heuristic Evaluation

How do we perform heuristic evaluation? Our team of 3-5 usability experts (depending on the project's size) checks your website or app for compliance with established usability principles (heuristics). We independently review the interface and identify usability issues that might be obscure through user testing alone. Then, we discuss findings and prioritize issues.

Let's take a look at the example of common heuristics.

Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics

1. Make sure that your users know what is going on through appropriate feedback.
2. Use language and concepts familiar to the user.
3. Provide ways to undo and redo actions.
4. Provide consistency and follow the standards and conventions.
5. Design to prevent errors.
6. Focus on enhancing recognition rather than recall to reduce user memory load.
7. Allow experienced users to use shortcuts.
8. Craft a minimalistic design and do not use too many elements (it must be transparent and efficient).
9. Help your users understand and recover from errors. Use plain and understandable language. 
10. Provide easily available assistance.

Real Example: A retail company used this heuristic method to conduct a website UX audit. The audit showed that the checkout process was too long and complex. As a result, they reduced cart abandonment by 20% by streamlining the checkout process and adding progress indications (source: NNG Group).

User Testing

There are various forms of user testing:

• Remote testing includes users doing tasks in their environment, giving real-world information. Tools like UserTesting and Lookback facilitate this.
• In-person testing involves observing users in usability labs for immediate feedback.
• A/B testing compares two-page versions to determine the best user engagement and conversions using popular tools like Optimizely and VWO.

But you may ask how to select participants. So, use user personas to guide selection, conduct surveys to filter participants who match your personas, and ensure a diverse group to cover various user behaviors and opinions.

Real Example: Airbnb decided to update its website and do user testing. An expert group observed how users interacted with their search filters and saw that it was complicated. They simplified the process, improved user experience and satisfaction, and increased bookings.

Analytics Review

Use different analytics tools to track metrics and analysis like:

• Bounce rates
• Conversion rates
• Click-Through rates (CTR)
• Exit rates
• Session duration
• Session recordings
• User feedback polls
• Analysis of user flows
• Event tracking

We recommend the following tools: Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Hotjar.

Real Example: A SaaS company conducted an analytics review and saw that users gave up on the registration process due to unclear instructions. The company used Hotjar for this purpose. After accepting changes, they improved their conversion rate by 15% (source: Hotjar Case Study).

Find out more about essential UX research methods in our article. 

Surveys and Feedback

Feedback is important in every business. Direct feedback offers valuable qualitative information, improving understanding of users' motivations, preferences, and pain points. It provides a human perspective to complement the analytics.

If you want to get feedback about a specific service, app, website, or component, you should prepare a good survey. How do you do it correctly? We have some tips.

Effective Survey Tips

• It must be short. Nobody likes to spend time answering many questions. Focus on key points.
• It must be easy to understand. Use plain language and avoid technical jargon.
• Ask open-ended questions. Allow users to give detailed answers.
• Ask about key areas of interest or known problems.
• Provide small rewards to encourage participation. Everybody loves gifts. Respect the user's time!

Real Example: After completing polls, a media corporation discovered that users want more video material. So the marketing department began creating more video content. It improved engagement and satisfaction (source: SurveyMonkey Case Studies).

We also want to share our own experience with you. Our team helped over 170 clients in reaching their goals and successful results. Learn more about our cases; there is so much interesting information. And now, let's find out how we at Arounda conduct a UX audit on a specific case.

Arounda UX Audit Example

Every digital product needs transformation to stay ahead in rapidly developing markets. So, the first step is to get a qualified UX audit. Our clients' main objectives for user experience audits are to detect pain points or validate a new product design before development. For example, let's look at three different projects.

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Unlocks Calendar

Unlocks Calendar provides users with future events for unlocking crypto coins/tokens. So they can predict prices, create investment strategies, and understand circulating supplies.

During the UX audit, our expert team detected and successfully fixed 15+ usability issues with Unlocks Calendar.

GT Protocol

GT Protocol is a Web 3.0 crypto investment platform. Our goals were to make the website unique and creative in the crypto market and user-friendly and intuitive.

After auditing and improvements, customer satisfaction with GT Protocol has increased by 32%. Also, we reached more excellent customer retention, higher lifetime value, and a stronger brand reputation.

MintySwap

MintySwap is a digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and NFTs. Our tasks were to conduct the UX website audit, help with the UI/UX redesign, and improve functionality. To improve MintySwap, Arounda examined its UI/UX, marketplace functioning, and technical problems. We offered the best ideas and wireframes for this project.

The results are amazing: increased engagement by 5%, traffic - by 22%, community growth by two times, and a 21% lower bounce rate.

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Discover more about the MintySwap case to get interesting insights. You are also welcome to see other successful cases.  

Expert Tips for a Successful UX Design Audit

We at Arounda care about the quality of each step. We want to give you constructive tips based on years of experience. Here they are:

• Ongoing improvement in user experience design is important. It is a continuous process that includes regular audits to monitor user interactions and identify potential areas for improvement.
• Continuous UX evaluation is vital for adapting to changing user needs, ensuring product relevance, and maintaining market competitiveness.
• Tools like Typeform and UserVoice can help you collect user feedback and create in-app surveys, feedback forms, user interviews, and more.
• Visualize user interaction with such tools as Crazy Egg and Hotjar. They help to see where users click, scroll, and spend the most time.
• Compare different versions of your pages and see what works better with A/B testing. Tools like Optimizely and VWO can help you with this task.
• Conduct a UX audit quarterly for high-traffic websites, bi-annually for most websites, or annually for smaller or less frequently updated sites.
• Establish a UX culture within an organization. Foster collaboration among designers, developers, marketers, and product managers.
• Form or hire a dedicated UX team for ongoing research, testing, and improvements to enhance user experiences.

We answered the central question of this article, "How to do a UX audit." But what is next? After a thorough user experience audit, you should decide if you need a redesign. Our Arounda team has excellent news for you. We offer redesign services or can teach you how to do it yourself.

Ready to upgrade your UX skills? Enroll in our free redesign course and learn how to transform your digital products with our expert guidance!

Final Thoughts

If you value your business, a UX audit is necessary! It is a promise to your customers to give the best possible user experience. Remember that the key to a good UX audit is its continuous nature. User demands, behavior, and market conditions are all constantly changing. Therefore, your task is to be ahead and offer relevant and high-quality services. Start an iterative process, use powerful tools and strategies, and develop a UX culture in your organization.

We are always happy to help conduct a comprehensive UX audit and transform your digital products. We're sure the users will thank you! Contact us, and let's start your UX journey.