User Experience (UX) Audit – What and Why
Have you ever used an app or a website (or other software product), where you struggled to find what you needed? Perhaps a restaurant where you wanted to quickly find the postcode for your Satnav, or the theatre to check the performance time; but instead of finding that key information quickly you went from page to page, increasingly frustrated? That’s due to poor UX. If you have to use the site, you will struggle on, perhaps letting out a few expletives along the way. If there is an alternative, you will quickly give up and go somewhere else. As a business, if you don’t get UX right, you will lose customers and it can even threaten the survival of your business. Conversely good UX is a short cut to increased profitability.
UX is a specialist skill, not the common sense you might think. The failure of software products to take off is typically not down to it being a bad idea but poor UX. Often competing products will come out at the same time and the winner will not be the product with the most features, but the tech that is easiest to use. Consumers don’t have time or energy to spend ages working out how to use your product. The difference between success and failure can be one extra click.
UX should be built into products (apps and websites) by an expert at the early developmental stage. It is then essential you undertake regular reviews, and you should always carry out a UX audit if there is a substantial redesign.
The most obvious sign of poor UX is proportionally low conversion rates. However, most business could improve their UX.
A UX audit goes beyond simple useability testing. It is an in-depth, data-driven assessment of the experience your app or website provides to users. It helps you evaluate your product methodically and to find ways to improve it.
The audit will typically consider the following against UX best practices and compliance:
- Conversion metrics
- Customer care data
- Sales data
- Traffic and engagement levels
- Usability of interfaces
- Mental modelling
- Wireframing and prototyping
These will all be considered alongside your business and user objectives. In some cases, for example, you might want to deliberately direct people to some areas of the website, even if users are looking for something else (e.g. Your contact phone number or a more profitable product). However, you would need to keep in mind that this might cause irritation.
A Journi UX audit will tell you:
- What’s working and what’s not working
- The metrics you’re collecting against what you might find useful to collect
- Information about your users that might inform your marketing as well as the UX
You will be provided with a report on what needs action, based on solid data. This should inform your design and can be used for future amendments. You will better understand why your customers behave like they do, what’s engaging them and what’s frustrating them.
If you have an in-house design team, it is tempting to ask them to carry out the UX audit to save money. However, this doesn’t give you the external perspective you need. Your internal team is too close to your product. They will have subconscious prejudices and will want to defend their product. You need a non-bias expert perspective.
The end result of a UX audit is higher conversion rates, so it will quickly pay for itself. Get in touch if you want to find out more.
