UX audits and their need
User Experience audits have become a cornerstone in the realm of digital design. They serve as a critical tool for assessing and improving the usability, accessibility, and overall effectiveness of digital products and services. If you’ve had the opportunity to indulge in the UX audit process, you already know the impact a good UX audit can have on the product, and how it can increase customer satisfaction and grow business.
And yet, we see time and time again that UX audits almost never happen. So how can we fix this and how can we get stakeholders to buy-in and make them happen more often?
Well just to make sure we are all on the same page, let’s first let’s look at what exactly is a UX Audit and what the benefits of conducting one are.
A UX audit, as the name suggests, is a systematic evaluation of a product’s user experience. Aspects such as usability, accessibility, content, visual design, interaction design, and overall user satisfaction are analysed in detail and design flaws as well as areas for improvement are identified. The end of the process provides actionable insights to enhance the user experience.
The Need and Benefits of UX Audits:
1. Pain Point Identification: The most obvious need of a UX audit is to of course help identify pain points, usability issues and even accessibility issues. This helps the team in prioritising areas that require improvements.
2. Identifying Good Points and Future Opportunities: UX audits are useful in identifying not only “what’s not working” but also “what’s working well”. The good points that are identified can be expanded upon and future opportunities can be spotted in the process as well.
3. Increasing User Satisfaction: As we discussed above, UX audits enable businesses to pinpoint areas where users may encounter frustration or confusion, this allows for targeted improvements that is directly tied to an increase in user satisfaction. This in turn can significantly impact conversion rates and business outcomes.
4. Data-Driven Insights: As designers it is not uncommon to lose sight of the objective metrics that indicate whether a product is a success or not. UX audits can help provide said objective, data-driven insights.
5. Cost-Effective Solutions: One of the most subtle yet important benefits of addressing usability issues and design flaws early through UX audits is that businesses can save time and resources later on by avoiding costly redesigns and rework.
6. Continuous Improvement: UX audits or any review process in general when integrated as a permanent process helps foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging the team to iteratively enhance the product.
Why UX Audits don’t happen often?
What can seem like a complex question can actually be answered with one word: Time. As is with most things that a designer might be forced to water down or outright skip in a ‘perfect design process’, it usually comes down to time. In the fast paced world of (especially) digital products, more often than not UXers are busy delivering feature after feature or fixing issues. This seldom leaves them with the time to look back and critically assess the performance of already delivered designs.
Of course, time may not be the only factor. Stakeholder buy-in and approvals are a crucial factor as well. These can often be related to the UX maturity of the organisation or the client the team is working with. There can also be other factors such as the UX team not consisting of a person experienced with running UX audits etc. All such factors can stack up and make the team feel like ‘it is not possible to fit this step in’.
So what can we do?
As we discussed above this is not exactly a simple problem to solve. Hence, we need to take a strategic approach here.
1. Start Small: In a UX process with no precedent for how a UX audit should be fit in, it is better to start with Small Scale or Micro Audits instead of Detailed Large Scale Audits off the bat. These Micro Audits focus on more granular elements of the user experience, such as specific user flows, form fields, or interactive components. These audits complement traditional UX audits by providing detailed insights into individual interactions and micro- interactions within a product. These can be done quickly by even one designer and can help create habits of continuous discovery and improvement.
A quick example of a micro UX audit can be seen below. This was a quick usability analysis of a pre-existing application, broadly looking into contextualisation, functionality and pattern consistency etc. without a pre-set checklist or parameters. Following was the legend for all of the pointers:
So as seen above, a quick audit like this can be done to get the team started on the process with immediate benefits. These can help deliver value and eventually be scaled up into full- fledged audits.
2. Getting Buy-in from Stakeholders: Depending on the UX maturity of the organisation, getting approvals from the leadership can be a common hurdle in not just UX audits but any process that doesn’t require the designer to “put colors on a page”. However, this can be tackled by things such as:
- Tying the value of UX audits with a pre-existing important success metric, such as conversion rate.
- Sharing data from user interviews and observations.
- Providing a clear roadmap from the process instead of a vague pitch.
- Just…do the audit and present the findings after. This one is daring but can be the most effective. Rather than waiting for permission, even a quick micro audit can be done and the findings be presented to the leadership to make a case for full scale audits.
Closing thoughts:
In an increasingly digital world, prioritising user experience is paramount for businesses seeking to engage and retain customers. UX audits, including micro audits, play a crucial role in this endeavour, providing valuable insights that drive improvements and ultimately enhance the usability, accessibility, and overall effectiveness of digital products and services. By embracing UX audits as a proactive measure, businesses can cultivate a user-centric approach to design that yields long-term success and customer satisfaction.
~by Chirag Sharawat
