TECHNOLOGY
What is a UX Audit, and Why Should You Conduct One?
Do you feel disappointed when your website users browse all the way through to the checkout without converting?
Don’t you want to figure out what stopped them from hitting the purchase or subscribe button? Or, probably, you used to have stable sales, but suddenly your growth slowed down, and so did your engagement level. So, don’t you feel like you should find out the reason for this digital decay? This is where a UX audit comes in.
In this article, you will learn everything about a UX audit, why, and how to conduct one. Let’s dive in. What is a UX Audit?
A UX audit is a process of uncovering the usability issues through thorough research and analysis. The aim or ultimate goal here is to mark the critical gaps in the user journey that stop the users from taking the actions they’re supposed to.
However, it doesn’t end here. An effective user experience audit helps figure out the usability problems and helps businesses with recommendations on developing a more seamless user journey. This practice positively impacts customer engagement and increases conversions.
UX audit is invaluable for both startups and already established mature companies. If you feel that your product is not delivering the expected customer experience, you can’t just wait for the problem to evaporate the other day magically. The more time you spend doing nothing to find out the issue, the more profit you lose.
A UX site audit can help you answer some very crucial questions like
-
What is working and what is not?
-
What metrics are collected?
-
What metrics should be collected?
-
What does data indicate about the users’ needs?
-
What frictions do users frequently experience during their journey on your site?
-
How do these frictions impact and influence the users’ behaviors?
-
At which do the users leave your website?
Now that you understand what a UX Audit is, let’s check out what happens during a UX Audit.
What Happens During a UX Audit?
You can conduct a UX Audit using various methods, tools, and metrics that help you identify the cause of your website’s underperformance. Here are the most important ones:
-
Review of business objectives
-
Review of user objectives
-
Customer care data
-
Conversion metrics
-
Sales data
-
Traffic and engagement insights
-
Usability heuristics
-
Compliance with UX standards
-
Mental modeling
-
Wireframing & Prototyping
-
UX Best Practices
Often people confuse UX audit with usability testing. However, they are different. The major difference between the two is the direction of information flow. A usability audit brings up problems from a set of pre-established goals, whereas testing points out the issues from user actions. Therefore, if the auditor does not have access to fundamental metrics, they may use usability testing while conducting an audit. But they will also combine the results with data gathered over the longer term and weigh them against industry standards and product goals.
When Should You Conduct a Usability Audit?
Having covered the methods, tools, and metrics, you’re probably wondering when you should conduct a usability audit?
The best time to conduct a UX audit is in the initial stages of a website. It is best to carry out an audit on a website that has been active, up, and running for some time. That is because you will have some data to examine. Companies without a dedicated UX team seem to benefit the most from a UX Audit. On the other hand, firms with a dedicated in-house team are most likely evaluating the site and tweaking the experiences continually.
Consider a UX audit as a health check for your website. You can conduct it at any stage of your product’s life cycle. It will only help you identify current performance issues and areas for improvement. However, two major times when you should conduct a UX audit are
-
When revamping your application or website: Conducting a holistic design audit is the best when you redesign an old website or an application that’s been live for a decent time span. It will help you assess existing user flows and pinpoint problems, distractions, or even bottlenecks that prevent users from taking the desired actions.
-
If you plan to implement a new functionality: Here, a UX audit will help you understand whether the new functionality is a valuable addition to your product? And whether users need it? Besides, it will also give an insight into whether your functionality is well-perceived by users and whether they experience navigation difficulties.
What are The Major Findings?
-
Project description
-
The main and ultimate goals of the UX audit.
-
User behavioral information
-
Quantitative metrics analyzed in the UX audit. It may include user interviews, competitive analysis, testing data, A/B test details, customer journey mapping, and heuristic evaluation.
-
Detailed test results, highlighting the primary pain points and potential areas for improvement.
-
Priorities and recommendations that could improve the product’s usability and maximize ROI.
Note that there’s no universal format for a UX audit report. Its size and structure totally depend on the business goals, information, and work complexity. Now, let’s see the possibilities and what may turn around after conducting an effective UX audit:
-
Your website will have a clear and easy-to-follow flow from the users’ point of view.
-
Your website messaging language, images, and CTAs will resonate with customers’ needs
-
More users will take expected actions (share contact details, subscribe, or purchase)
-
You will have a better understanding of your users
-
You could enhance customer personas and tailor your marketing communications accordingly.
An Overview of The Process
Following are the essential steps to conduct a UX audit. It turns out these steps can help conduct an eCommerce UX audit too.
1. Identify Your Goals
The first step is to identify and mention the ultimate goal of a UX audit. The most common goal is to increase conversions. However, you’re free to target other metrics based on your business specifics.
2. What Resources Do You Have and Who to Involve?
Usually, you don’t need additional or new resources to conduct a usability audit. You can simply use the previously secured data and resources at hand. Also, ensure that all participants you involve in the UX audit understand what you expect customers to experience while using your product. Ask every team member to walk the path a user typically goes through. They must track every point that can hinder a seamless customer journey.
3. What is Your Budget and Timeline?
Whether you choose an external team to conduct the audit or simply assemble an internal team, make sure to set a strict timeline. Moreover, it is best to clearly lay out the milestones you want them to achieve. Since it’s an analytical process, make sure it doesn’t stretch for too long.
4. Retrieve Necessary Data
Once you have the team in place, all resources lined up, and a set budget and timeline, you should move to gather all the necessary data. You must collect data from the following most critical sources:
A. Business Analysis
One of the most critical things to note here is that user research aims at getting a better understanding of the users of a product or service. On the other hand, a UX audit should primarily focus on understanding the product’s business goals you want to audit. Therefore, stakeholders and business owners are the best and most reliable sources for such information.
The best way to wrap it up quickly but efficiently is through a quick survey with general questions about the product’s purpose, the problems, and how they want the issues to be fixed. For deeper insights, you can schedule one-on-one interviews with product managers, stakeholders, developers, sales teams, marketers, and customer service people.
B. User Analysis
This is the step where you bring the users in. Who better than the users themselves to give you an insight into their user experience while using your product. Conducting a user experience audit shall help you gather as much data as possible about the customers who use the product/website you want to audit.
Mainly, businesses rely on buyer or user personas to get to know the digital product’s audience. Besides the personas, you can also pull out valuable insights from the stakeholder interviews, as they better understand and know about the customers.
Another effective but the most time-consuming method is to interview the end-users directly. Based on the information you receive from these interviews, you can draft out a typical flow that each user follows. Also, note down the difficulties they face while using your website or application and the factors that lead them towards the wrong path.
C. Quantitative Analysis
There’s no denying that analytical tools are super valuable assistants when it comes to collecting information. The two most useful insightful data resources for a UX audit are heatmap analysis and traffic analytics.
Traffic Analytics: You’re probably already familiar with Google Analytics. It provides “diagnostic” metrics like on-page time, bounce rate, and how much time users spend browsing your website. The metrics can objectively tell you whether users actually engage with your content or if they abandon the site after 1 or 2 minutes after they get there.
Heatmap Analysis: Again, this one is also a crucial tool because it represents how users engage with your website interface. Some heatmaps record clicks and scrolls, and some record cursor movements.
D. Qualitative Analysis
When it comes to the quality of design, the UX designers take the help of the 10 UX usability heuristics to make websites or apps even more user-friendly. These heuristics are more like rules of thumb laid out based on common sense.
To conduct a heuristic evaluation, you must document every obstacle you encounter while following a customer journey. Try to see the product from a user’s point of view. Now, it may sound and seem simple, but it is pretty tough to perform it internally. You can’t be sure about your team staying unbiased and acting like a clueless user that visits your website for the first time.
E. Organize Your Results
The easiest way to document your results is the good old Google Sheets. Upload all your data on these spreadsheets and make them accessible for everyone on the team.
F. Prepare The Audit Report
Once your analysis is complete, compile a comprehensive audit report. Put down all your findings with all the necessary details, elaborating on each factor. Don’t forget to mention the recommendations for user experience improvement.
There is no fixed number of pages for an audit report. It can be as short as 20 pages and as long as 60 pages. The length of the report entirely depends on the information and work complexity. It can contain the following elements to be precise:
-
Quantitative data analysis
-
Screenshots
-
Customer interview recordings
-
Stakeholder interview recording
-
Other useful data secured during the audit.
-
Screen-by-screen comparison of the existing design issues for a much better understanding.
-
Advice in enhancing the experiences.
G. Follow Up on Recommendations
Last but not least, follow up on the advice, suggestions, and recommendations that the audit brings to light. If you don’t properly follow up on it, it’s only a waste. As user experience is built by team effort and effective collaboration of various departments, ensure that all people involved in the audit know about the findings and what to do to create a smooth and hassle-free customer journey.
Need Help With a UX Audit?
Although a UX audit is a time-consuming and expensive process, it can drastically improve your product’s performance by pinning down the weak points in user experience that prevent potential customers from taking the actions they ideally should. Therefore, if you need help with auditing the UX of your website, you can reach out to us. Our team of talented UX designers is well-versed in the UX auditing process and can conduct one for you to help improve your website user experience.
Source link
TECHNOLOGY
HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).
Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.
The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.
Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.
“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”
Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.
“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”
Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.
Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.
TECHNOLOGY
Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.
It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.
MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.
Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says
In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.
With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.
Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.
“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“
MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.
Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.
Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.
TECHNOLOGY
AWS and SoftwareOne collaborate on RISE with SAP

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SoftwareOne Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, have partnered to help customers transition to RISE with SAP on an AWS cloud environment.
Called the Ready for RISE on AWS bundle, it combines SoftwareOne’s deep SAP advisory and implementation knowledge with AWS technologies to expedite a client’s SAP transformation journey.
The collaboration comes at a time when there is growing pressure on organisations to decide how to modernise their SAP environments driven in part by the end of mainstream support for SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2027. Despite the imminent deadline, many organisations are still confused as to which path to take, including when to adopt RISE with SAP, SAP’s bundled offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that helps migrate SAP ERP to the cloud.
Ireneusz Hołowacz, Director of Application Development Center at GAVDI Polska, said: “A stable, efficient, and cost-effective environment for consultants and programmers is one of the most important priorities of our daily work. Thanks to the migration of our SAP systems to the AWS cloud with the help of SoftwareOne, GAVDI Polska has achieved all the goals set for this process.
In a survey recently conducted by SoftwareOne with Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) – the full details of which will be revealed in January 2024 – showed that while 42% of respondents were familiar with RISE with SAP, 40% had heard of it but weren’t familiar with the details and 18% had never heard of it. Over half (52%) said they were still unsure how RISE with SAP would impact their existing relationship with cloud service providers.
“SAP customers have implemented some of the most comprehensive and complex enterprise systems in the industry and moving them to cloud services like AWS requires many important decisions to be made to optimise these investments,” says Joshua Greenbaum, Principal at EAC. “SoftwareOne’s extensive experience in the SAP ecosystem, combined with its unique capabilities around system rationalisation, cost containment, contracts and licenses, and cloud service management, among others, will provide customers deploying on AWS with the ability to make the most of RISE on SAP and other SAP offerings. Ready for RISE on AWS is an important offering for SAP customers at this critical moment in their business transformations.”
The Ready for RISE on AWS bundle will help clients understand their SAP transformation options and offer a comprehensive solution to organisations who consider RISE with SAP. It includes advisory data preparation, conversion services, data and AI, cloud innovation platform, supporting the entire journey to RISE on AWS. Clients will benefit from accelerated Return on Investment (ROI), optimal data management, and cost-saving strategies while laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and long-term business success.
Matt Schwartz, worldwide director, SAP Alliance & Partner Network at AWS, said: “As a valued AWS Premier Consulting Partner, AWS is working closely with SoftwareOne to offer SAP customers comprehensive assistance through each step of their journey to RISE with SAP on AWS. SoftwareOne’s ability to bundle Advisory, Data & AI, Cloud Platform, and Operations considerations can be of high interest to customers who are seeking to understand RISE with SAP as well as the cloud native and operation considerations that surround and support the RISE with SAP construct.”
PF Grillet, SAP Business Lead at SoftwareOne, said: “There are many choices available to SAP clients who know they need to modernise but aren’t sure of the best option, particularly given the business-critical nature of the applications.
“All of our services are centered around our customers and what is right for them. This includes supporting and optimising RISE with SAP in scenarios when it’s the right decision based on their requirements. Our extensive knowledge of and relationship with AWS means we can help them better prepare and achieve a seamless transition to S/4HANA using RISE with SAP on AWS with reduced costs and risks. This collaboration goes beyond preparing businesses for change; it’s making transformation and becoming innovation-ready a reality using AWS technologies.”
The offering includes SNP tooling to reduce a customer’s data footprint and accelerate migration. SoftwareOne will migrate selected data to an AWS data lake, accelerate innovation readiness and ensure SAP data is suitable for broader data analytics and AI use cases. Clients gain access to innovative tools like AWS’ Sagemaker for Machine Learning, continuous data management and optimisation within the AWS environment. The AWS innovation platform also includes Amazon Bedrock that helps organisations accelerate adapting Large Language Models and deploying GenAI use cases that leverage the extended data set.
“While the future innovation opportunities are exciting, clients need to balance these with a pragmatic approach to costs,” explained Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA at SoftwareOne, “We integrate ‘Cost-Out’ recommendations into the core of our services, providing a more cost-effective solution for customers, like reducing the data footprint size and optimising storage and archiving.
“Our expertise in the complexities of SAP licensing further drives cost savings while our FinOps capabilities enable customers to optimise their AWS cloud spend and effectively manage their AWS cloud environment, ensuring full transparency in their budgets. The overall result is a significantly reduced time for RISE migration, which translates into a quicker time to value.”
Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.
-
FACEBOOK5 days ago
Indian Government Warns Facebook, YouTube About Deepfakes, Misinformation Violations
-
MARKETING4 days ago
Whiteboard Friday Recap 2023: AI Edition
-
MARKETING7 days ago
“Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field
-
SOCIAL6 days ago
17-Year-Old Claims To Make 6 Figures A Year
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Follower Count Is Not A Google Search Ranking Factor
-
SOCIAL6 days ago
Meta Stock: Still Room For Upside In A Maturing Market (NASDAQ:META)
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google Testing “Simple Search” Refinement Option
-
SOCIAL7 days ago
X Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Accreditation
You must be logged in to post a comment Login