![\"ux](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ux-audit.jpg\")
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Imagine you run an online shop where you sell custom t-shirts. Thousands of users browse your website every day looking for the right product to buy. They check available options, add to cart favorite items, proceed to the checkout page, and then abandon the cart. You start wondering why. Is anything missing or unclear? You don\u2019t know if your website needs some fixing or a major redesign. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sooner or later, every website owner runs into these challenges and starts thinking about conversion rate optimization. <\/span>However, the question is – how to figure out what requires optimization? There are many elements on-site, what should you work on?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As an expert UX agency, w<\/span>e will help you to discover what a UX audit<\/a> is and how your business can benefit from conducting a usability audit. If you are looking for a partner agency to help you with a UX audit, <\/strong>let’s get in touch<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Before we get to the practical steps, let\u2019s first examine what the <\/span>user experience audit<\/span> is and when it’s essential to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n A UX audit also referred to as a\u00a0usability audit, is the process of a website or a mobile app\u2019s user interface evaluation. It\u2019s a handy tool for those, who want to identify usability problems in their digital products. UX audit can also help you detect problematic areas that make users abandon their journey and leave.<\/p>\n While a <\/span>UX audit<\/span> can’t directly solve all the problems on a website or an app, it can be used to answer some profound questions:<\/span><\/p>\n The usability audit should help you define the core problems in your product, which, if tackled, can increase your product\u2019s conversion rates, improve its usability and address your users’ objections.<\/p>\n If you’re looking for UX audit specialists, message us and book a free consultation<\/a><\/strong> with us. Our experts can thoroughly analyze your product<\/strong>, conduct usability testing, identify the core issues, and suggest the right next steps to improve its online performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As an expert design agency<\/a>, we helped many companies run the UX evaluation to understand what prevents their customers from conversion. Based on our experience, 5 user tests are enough to discover 80% of the usability problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For example, an online <\/span>e-commerce store UX audit <\/span>might reveal that users lack information about product delivery. It can also reveal that the payment options are limited and users don\u2019t know how to pay. Moreover, if your checkout page endlessly loads, users will most likely close it in a few seconds. As a result, these issues could lead to a higher shopping cart abandonment rate on a site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, before you proceed with the <\/span>usability evaluation<\/span>, here is when it\u2019s recommended to conduct a <\/span>design audit<\/span> to get the most out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s suppose you want to learn more about your users and grow your business faster. In that case, you will significantly benefit from a <\/span>user experience audit<\/span> no matter when it is done. Startups that want to validate their MVPs will find it extremely useful, too, be it a UX or <\/span>UI audit<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Consider <\/span>UX audit<\/span> as a health check. It can be conducted at any stage of your product\u2019s life cycle to identify current performance issues and areas for improvement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Conduct a holistic <\/span>design audit<\/span> when you redesign a website<\/a> or an app <\/b>that\u2019s been live for some time. It will help you assess existing user flows, detect problems, distractions, or bottlenecks that prevent users from taking the desired actions.<\/span><\/p>\n If you plan to develop and implement new functionality<\/b>. UX audit will help you understand if the new functionality is a valuable addition to your product and whether users need it. Besides, you will also know if your functionality is well-perceived by users and whether they experience any difficulty in navigation.<\/span><\/p>\n UX audit is not only used when you have an existing digital product. You can apply the same process <\/span>to validate a new product design before its development.<\/b> At this point, you are still flexible to make changes that will not cause significant time and budget losses.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>UX audit<\/span> findings are usually arranged in the<\/span>\u00a0report<\/span> that contains:<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no universal format for the <\/span>UX audit report <\/span>since its size and structure depend on the work complexity.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, at UX studio, we create, share and present <\/span>a user experience audit report<\/span> to our partners, which contains all insights and discoveries based on empirical evidence. What is more, we also provide some handy, actionable recommendations on what to change in your digital product, and how to start making those changes.<\/span><\/p>\n To help you better understand what you can expect from the <\/span>UX audit<\/span>, here is our <\/span>example report<\/span> prepared for one of our partners \u2014 an <\/span>Indian real estate giant MagicBricks. We conducted extensive user research to validate new feature ideas and define users\u2019 main pain points on the website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our sample UX audit report<\/a> for\u00a0an <\/span>Indian real estate giant MagicBricks\u00a0<\/span>👇<\/span><\/p>\n At UX studio, we conduct UX audits to identify usability problems through interviews and testing with actual users. Book a free consultation with us, and boost your business results together<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n To better understand where potential pain points were likely to arise, we ran workshops for each segment, ultimately mapping out the user journey.<\/span><\/p>\n The mission turned out to be a huge success thanks to MagicBricks and UX studio teams’ flexibility and professionalism.<\/span><\/p>\n As a part of the <\/span>UX audit<\/span> mission, we also helped one of our partners, Xeropan, which is an English learning app, to increase their app-store conversion rate.<\/span><\/p>\n Multiple usability tests have been conducted to identify the problematic points in the Xeropan mobile app. We showed users the App Store mockups and asked them to share their app perception.<\/span><\/p>\n We also conducted in-person interviews with prototypes, where we asked participants the same questions and tried to understand the reasons behind their answers.<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, our experts came up with many design changes that helped increase the app-store conversion and user retention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We strive to collaborate with our partners in the long-term to show the value of UX design and align it with the development efforts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Usability audit can drastically improve your product performance<\/strong>, which might open up new business opportunities. Although usability audit isn’t a magical pill to cure every product\u2019s issue. <\/span><\/p>\n As a result of the usability audit:<\/p>\n But does UX audit have any other monetary benefits for business? W<\/span>hat\u2019s in there for a company owner, CEO, or PM?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On average, businesses report a $100 ROI out of $1 invested in the UX<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While <\/span>our study<\/span> conducted among product teams revealed the following top 3 benefits<\/strong> of UX for business:<\/span><\/p>\n Research and data-driven decisions help your business lower customer handling and acquisition costs, increase CLV (customer lifetime value) and retention. UX audit enables you to reveal what exactly your users want and how to meet their needs.<\/span><\/p>\n Customers will appreciate you taking care of them. Good UX will make them feel grateful and increase their loyalty level. Hence, taking care of your product\u2019s usability contributes to your business goals and gives you a tremendous competitive advantage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n UX audit has quite some benefits for the product design and development teams as well. PMs are concerned with making their digital products as useful and user-friendly as possible. They utilize the power of UX design audit to identify the root cause of such problems as high bounce, churn or drop rate, copy and navigation ambiguity, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, developers know what needs to be done to ensure prompt product upgrades and proper functionality.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>UX audit<\/span> costs heavily depend on the scope and complexity of work, who you work with (is it an expert agency or an individual freelancer), and the duration of the <\/span>UX audit<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n If you would like to outsource it and hire external freelancers, be ready to invest at least $1,000 -$3,000 for a <\/span>usability audit.<\/span> For this amount, you should at least get a checklist with usability issues listed and explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Make sure to discuss the audit results with a freelancer. Moreover, check which research methods have been used to analyze your website performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We recommend conducting user testing and learn about usability issues from the actual users. Such research provides valid and thorough information about your product’s performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Established agencies might charge from $7,000-$12,000<\/strong> for an extensive usability<\/span>\u00a0audit <\/span>lasting 2-4 weeks. Expert agencies usually allocate designers and researchers to work on product’s audit. They examine the quantitative data, recruit participants for user testing and conduct interviews to learn about the product\u2019s performance. Expert design agencies provide extensive <\/span>UX audit reports<\/span> and thrive to offer actionable steps to improve business performance.<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, at UX studio, we help our partners better understand their customers’ pains through user testing and interviews. We record all interview sessions not to miss any information and include it in the <\/span>UX audit report<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n Our <\/span>UX audit<\/span> always shows the main problems identified during user interviews, as well as an expert evaluation of the primary user flows. <\/span>\u00a0At the end of each mission, we prioritize discovered usability problems and create a detailed roadmap with recommendations on how to tackle each of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you would like to improve your product’s usability but do not know where to start let’s get in touch<\/a>.<\/strong> Get in touch with the business electricity<\/a> experts and know what needs to be done to save energy and get work done efficiently as well.<\/span><\/p>\n Our experts will help you to thoroughly analyze your product, conduct usability testing, identify the core issues, and suggest the right steps to improve your product performance.<\/span><\/p>\n There is no officially accepted methodology on how to conduct the <\/span>UX audit.<\/span> Companies and individual UX professionals might approach it<\/span>\u00a0differently. However, the general steps and the ultimate goals are often similar. The actual process can differ depending on the product’s complexity, the scope of work, and your goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As an expert design agency with over 10 years of experience, we have developed our own process that we apply for all research and\u00a0<\/span>audit<\/span> works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here is our process, step-by-step. We aimed to make it simple, yet effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the beginning of the UX audit, it\u2019s essential to get to know the product and the company\u2019s business goals and then set up the key objectives and expectations for the usability and design<\/span>\u00a0audit<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We usually strive to meet our partners and conduct workshops, interviews to learn about the business and its current challenges. We aim to understand the target audience\u2019s behavior, the parts that cause misunderstanding, the reasons behind a poor conversion rate, and user flows that require a revamp.<\/span><\/p>\n In case the product does not exist yet, we strongly recommend conducting discovery research, interviewing potential customers to learn about their needs, and checking the level of competition in your niche market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
What is a UX audit?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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![\"UX](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ux-agency-data-driven-decision-1-720x264.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen to do a usability audit? <\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"Make](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/digital-product-agency-1-720x263.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is the output of a UX audit?<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nUX audit for an English learning app<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Xeropan-churn-rate-reduction-case-study.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"UX](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/UX-Audit-Banner.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe business value of UX audit<\/h2>\n
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![\"top](\"https:\/\/uxstudioteam.com\/ux-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Top-benefits-of-UX-design.jpg\")
\nOne of our partners, a top travel company in France \u2014 Liligo, reported a 100% increase in bookings through the mobile app due to the UX redesign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow much does a UX audit cost?<\/b><\/h2>\n
How to conduct a UX audit <\/b><\/h2>\n
Step 1. Getting to know the product and business\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n