Who should do a UX audit and when?

A UX audit is a process that assesses a digital interface by delivering a thorough report on potential usability problems and making recommendations for enhancements based on heuristics.

Esmée Lewis
Make it Clear
4 min readJan 31, 2023

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Who should do a UX audit and when?

In a UX audit, the evaluator will examine which parts of the website are effective for users and which may require improvement using established usability heuristics, Google Analytics, and UX research. This might contain insights from an assessment of user and business goals, conversion metrics, traffic and engagement.

Who should do a UX audit?

The size of an organisation and the resources available will determine who does a UX audit. UX audits are usually carried out by internal design and research teams in small businesses and startups.

Some organisations might use external auditors to assess their digital products and provide a report so they may receive an unbiased, objective UX audit. Larger organisations might use UX design agencies that produce thorough audits with useful insights. Startups and smaller companies might consider employing a freelancer to obtain similar outcomes.

When should a UX audit take place?

In general, it is advised to conduct a UX audit at least once per quarter as a ‘health check’ for your organisation’s design processes and UX implementation. A UX audit may be done at any time, as regular updates can highlight whether significant changes or a few small tweaks are necessary to improve the user-friendliness of a site.

Regular UX audits might also reveal previously undetected areas for improvement. Although it’s not essential to put off doing a UX audit until there is a noticeable decline in site usage, there are some key instances where a UX audit might be most appropriate.

Suspected pain points in the user experience

Suppose you have received some feedback from a user that they are experiencing difficulties in understanding how to navigate your site or are not clear on some functionalities.

When a user is attempting to complete a task while using the website, there might be moments along the way that slow them down or cause them to stop entirely. Friction points might include errors and bugs, an excessive number of extra steps needed to complete a task, delayed load times, or a design that is not intuitive. Finding these points of friction in UX audits is crucial because they may cause users to exit the site.

A UX audit is a great first step to take in order to identify these issues with precision and perhaps uncover ways to enhance the user experience. This is an excellent opportunity to evaluate how your existing design and implementation work, while focusing on the fundamental pain points that users are experiencing.

Implementing a new functionality

If you’re starting the process of redesigning a website and want to make significant advancements, a UX audit report might be helpful. If you intend to implement new features, a UX audit will help you to determine whether the feature is a worthwhile addition to your digital product.

You will also be able to determine if the feature is valuable to users. This way, you can assess a new design before it is developed, giving you more flexibility to make modifications that won’t result in substantial time and budget losses.

To learn more about your users

The UX audit can assist you in identifying the core problems with a site, which, if addressed, can increase conversion rates, enhance usability, and meet user goals. UX audit reports can indicate elements of a website that might be confusing or distracting to users so that the UX team can strive towards the most seamless and efficient user flows.

Conversion metrics and engagement data can provide light on where and when users are leaving your website if metrics such as the average time spent on a page, unique visitors, and pages viewed per session are declining.

A data-driven understanding of these points helps refocus attention on the areas that require more research to achieve organisational goals and user objectives.

To conclude

Although there are key moments during the life of your digital product that might call for a UX audit, there is never a ‘wrong’ time to conduct one.

If you think that a UX audit would suit the needs of your organisation, have a look at our blog to learn about other important considerations such as how long it takes to conduct one, and how they might help to grow your business.

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