A drop in enquiries can trigger a decision to commission an entirely new website. Before starting the redesign, it is worth finding out where the difficulty actually lies. The cause could be an unclear offer, a long form, slow loading or insufficient evidence of credibility. A UX audit helps separate these possibilities.
What does a UX audit cover?
It is a structured review of how a website supports user tasks. An expert review can cover information architecture, navigation, content hierarchy, form behaviour and error messages. Analytics and user testing can add evidence. An expert review on its own is not a substitute for observing real people.
Follow a specific journey
Rather than reviewing every page in isolation, choose an important task: finding a service, evaluating the offer and submitting an enquiry. Follow that journey on a phone and a computer. Check whether link labels are clear, actions have an obvious purpose and visitors can anticipate what happens next.
For forms, review labels, required fields, validation and confirmation. A functioning button is only part of the process. The visitor needs to know the message was accepted, and the team must verify that it reached the right destination.
Separate observations from assumptions
“The button is below a long block of text” is an observation. “People do not enquire because they cannot find the button” is a hypothesis. A useful report distinguishes the two and explains what evidence would support the decision.
- Describe the issue and where it occurs.
- Identify the user task affected.
- Propose an improvement and a way to validate it.
- Assess impact, frequency and implementation effort.
Priorities matter more than the length of the report
A broken enquiry form will usually deserve attention before inconsistent spacing. Group recommendations by their effect on users and the effort required. Small fixes can proceed quickly, while larger assumptions can be tested in a prototype before rebuilding the website.
Evaluate the outcome
Define a baseline before implementation. Afterwards, compare similar periods and traffic sources. Campaigns and seasonality can influence results as much as an interface change. For smaller websites, conversations and focused usability sessions can explain more than a single percentage in an analytics dashboard.
At MDG, an audit can be the first step towards improving a website or digital product. Explore our work and send us the site address and a description of the problem. If a new website is already planned, use our website brief guide to prepare the scope.
