How to conduct your first UX design audit
To run your first UX audit, define goals and scope, gather analytics and feedback, review key journeys against usability heuristics, check accessibility and performance, test with a few real users, then log and prioritise issues by impact and effort. Share a short, ranked report with recommended fixes.
What a UX design audit is
A UX design audit is a structured review of an existing product, such as a website, app or internal tool, to find out where it makes life harder for users and what to fix first. Unlike a redesign, which starts from a blank page, an audit starts from what already exists. It looks at real usage data, compares the design against established usability principles, checks accessibility and performance, and observes real people using the product.
Audits are often run by external specialists, but a product team can run a useful first audit on its own. The key is to keep the scope focused, collect evidence rather than opinions, and turn findings into a short, prioritised list that the team can act on. If you need to make the business case first, our post on why a UX audit matters explains the costs of skipping one.
Preparing for the audit
Good preparation makes the audit faster and more useful. Start by agreeing who the audit is for and what decisions it should inform. Gather access to analytics, heatmaps, support tickets, app store reviews and any previous research. Identify the key journeys that matter most to users and the business, such as sign-up, search, checkout or booking, and limit the audit to two or three of them.
- Agree the goal and audience for the audit
- Choose two or three key user journeys
- Collect analytics, heatmaps and support data
- List known complaints and previous research
- Book five users for short testing sessions
- Set a timeline, usually two to three weeks
Step by step
- Set goals and scope: Pick two or three key journeys tied to business goals.
- Gather data: Analytics, heatmaps, support tickets and reviews.
- Heuristic review: Walk each journey against usability heuristics.
- Accessibility and performance: Run WCAG and Core Web Vitals checks.
- Test with users: Five users attempting the key tasks.
- Prioritise and report: Rank issues by impact and effort.
Heuristics to check
- Visibility of system status
- Match with real-world language
- User control and easy undo
- Consistency and standards
- Error prevention and clear recovery
- Recognition rather than recall
- Minimal, focused design
Checking accessibility
Accessibility checks make sure the product works for people with disabilities and often reveal usability problems that affect everyone. Start with automated tools, which quickly flag issues such as missing image descriptions, low colour contrast and unlabelled form fields. Then test manually: navigate key journeys using only a keyboard, try a screen reader on a few pages and zoom the page to 200% to see whether content still fits.
| Check | How to test | Common issue |
|---|---|---|
| Colour contrast | Contrast checker tool | Light grey text on white |
| Keyboard access | Tab through the page | Menus or buttons that cannot be reached |
| Screen reader | VoiceOver or NVDA | Buttons announced as "button" with no label |
| Zoom and reflow | Zoom to 200% | Text cut off or overlapping |
| Touch targets | Measure on mobile | Links too small or too close together |
Checking performance
Slow pages frustrate users and lose conversions. Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to measure the Core Web Vitals on key pages, on mobile as well as desktop. Note which pages are slowest and what is causing it, such as large images, heavy scripts or slow server responses. Performance findings often lead to quick, high-impact fixes.
How to log issues
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Issue | Promo code error is not explained |
| Where | Checkout, step 2 |
| Evidence | 3 of 5 users stuck; 14 support tickets |
| Severity | High |
| Fix | Show the reason and how to correct it |
For the business case, see why a UX audit matters. Set baselines with UX metrics so you can show improvement after fixes.
Prioritising what to fix
An audit often produces dozens of findings, and not all of them deserve equal attention. Score each issue by how much it affects users, how many people it affects and how hard it is to fix. Plot them on a simple impact and effort grid. High-impact, low-effort issues are quick wins to fix first. High-impact, high-effort issues need planning. Low-impact issues can wait or be grouped into a future clean-up.
| Low effort | High effort | |
|---|---|---|
| High impact | Fix now | Plan into the roadmap |
| Low impact | Fix when convenient | Reconsider or drop |
Writing the audit report
Keep the report short and practical. Lead with a one-page summary of the most important findings and recommended actions. Follow with each issue, including a screenshot, the evidence behind it, its severity and a suggested fix. Short video clips from user sessions are especially persuasive. Present the findings to the team in a live session and agree owners for the top actions. Our post on sharing research insights has more tips for presenting findings so they lead to action.
After the audit
An audit is only valuable if its findings are acted on. Track the top issues in the team’s backlog, fix the quick wins within a few weeks and measure the effect. Running a lighter audit every six to twelve months keeps the product healthy and stops new problems from building up unnoticed.
Frequently asked questions
Can we do a UX audit ourselves?
Yes. A small team can audit key journeys using analytics, heuristics, accessibility tools and a few user sessions. An outside view adds objectivity.
What are usability heuristics?
General principles for usable interfaces, such as Jakob Nielsen’s ten heuristics, used to spot common problems.
How do we prioritise issues?
Score each by user impact and effort to fix, then start with high-impact, low-effort items.
How long does a first UX audit take?
For two or three key journeys, plan for two to three weeks, including data review, expert checks, five user sessions and the report.