Do you know whether your customers currently experience friction or pain points as they shop on your site? That’s where a user experience (UX) audit comes in. Routine UX audits enable designers to evaluate your ecommerce website to ensure usability, consistency, and accessibility.

Your website’s UX refers to the complete composite of your customer’s experience and interaction with your online store. Many things play into UX, including checkout, navigation, search, product pages, and mobile UX. Therefore, it’s a crucial part of your digital store’s success and needs to be thoroughly reviewed periodically.

What is a UX Audit?

A UX audit or UX design review is a quality assurance process that reviews a digital product or service to ensure it meets user experience, business, and accessibility requirements. A UX audit provides a deep insight into current issues, such as decreased retention or conversion rates, and helps you create a roadmap for your UX design.

Above all, a UX audit creates empathy with your customers. A better understanding of your customers will affect all your future decisions, from UX design to the products or services you sell.

What are the Benefits of a UX Audit?

A UX audit allows you to:

What Does a UX Auditor Review During the Assessment?

An auditor will test and evaluate the following elements during a UX audit:

  • Compare product design with business and UX objectives
  • Usability
  • Accessibility
  • Friction and pain points in the user journey
  • Design inconsistencies amongst colors, fonts, and more

Which Businesses Should Opt for a UX Audit?

We would recommend a UX review to any digital commerce business that wants to ensure the user journey is seamless and optimized for its customers. While most ecommerce businesses would benefit from a UX review, those without a dedicated UX team should prioritize the assessment. You should always put your customers first, and your design choices should reflect that.

Another top candidate for a UX audit is a company that expects to scale in the near future. A UX audit will illuminate pain points in the user journey, and ensure users can make purchases without friction.

Who Should Conduct the UX Audit for You?

This will largely depend on the size of your business and the resources available to you. Smaller businesses and startups may opt for an in-house team to carry out the UX review, or hire a freelancer.

To receive the benefits of an expert and objective UX assessment, some businesses may utilize external specialists to analyze their digital products and compile a report. Larger corporations may reach out to a UX design agency, which is costlier but provides an in-depth review with multi-dimensional feedback and suggestions.

When Should a Company Conduct a UX Audit?

In today’s fast-paced tech industry, businesses should carry out an audit at least once per quarter as a general health check.

Another important time to conduct a UX audit is when you have identified or suspect that there may be pain points in your user experience. This is a great chance to review your current design and UX implementation, and this can help create a quick roadmap to improve your overall UX.

Regular UX audits help your business keep a user-centric approach to your digital product that is always evolving and on top of your user needs.

How do I Prepare for a UX Audit?

To get the most out of your UX audit, do your homework first:

  • Understand your business objectives and goals. Make sure to define your expectations of a UX audit before you begin. Without clear goals, the success of the audit will be merely subjective at best. Try to tie your objectives with conversions, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
  • Get to know your users’ needs and understand their objectives. Before you can better your UX, you must have a clear knowledge of your users via user personas. Define where your users are coming from, and chart the behavior and demographics. Also, try and pinpoint whether your actual users are the ones you are actively targeting; the answer may surprise you!
  • Ensure your product data and analytics are current. Conduct data collection and compile your analytics before your UX audit for a clearer end result. This may include data like click tracing or heatmaps. This information will help auditors determine how users navigate your website and whether any changes must be made to accommodate their behavior.
  • Carry out heuristic evaluations. Test your site’s usability by measuring whether your website is user-friendly.
  • Compile findings in reports and make recommendations to make improvements to your site. A UX audit will prove whether your current efforts are on the right track.
  • Prioritize and apply these recommendations on your quarterly roadmaps or as needed.
  • Previous UX review results and changes made to your website. Have you had a UX assessment in the past? Include this report and compile any changes made to your website in a report.
  • Additional things you may want to include are deliverables, deadlines, audit constraints, and information pertaining to stakeholders.

What Should be Included in a UX Audit?

UX Audits are performed by comparing the website to best practice key guidelines that would suit your business best, mixed with the UX research team’s input on recommendations and trends.

Unless a specific area of the website is required (for example, checkout) it would be recommended to focus on the following areas for basic check health audits:

  • Framework (header, footer, and its interactions)
  • Content / Landing pages
  • Product catalog (listing pages)
  • Product detail pages
  • General style guide/trends

Accessibility concerns should always be a priority when evaluating all areas of your website.

What are the Next Steps and Engagements Once the UX Audit is Complete?

Take note of the most time-sensitive findings in your UX Audit and dedicate the time and resources to mitigating them. Then create a project roadmap with high business value tasks that include design and UX updates.

Remember, a regular UX evaluation of your site can make the difference between an average customer experience and an exceptional one that stays on top of the industry trends.

Why is an Ecommerce Specialist Necessary When Seeking a UX Audit Expert?

As we’ve outlined in this article, a UX audit is an important aspect of deeply understanding your customers, defining their pain points, and ensuring your business flourishes without unnecessary obstacles. Finding an ecommerce expert with experience will ensure that no rock is left unturned and you get the most out of your UX review.

At Vaimo, we know what it takes to elevate your UX to meet your customers and your business goals. We’ve perfected our techniques through hundreds of ecommerce projects over the last 14 years. Whether you require a quick turnaround for a smaller project, or you need a complete website redesign and development, we’re here to help.

You’ll find that design meets technology at Vaimo. Talk to our in-house design and technology team today to take your UX to new heights.

 

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