A Usability Audit – also known as an expert review – is a detailed examination of how your website performs in various aspects of usability.
Each audit is custom-designed to suit the client's needs, and can be focused in any way the client desires. For example:
As an example, a site-wide audit on a typical eCommerce website would include reviews of the following aspects of website performance:
What kind of first impression does your website give? How does it perform in terms of communication, overall feel, trustworthiness and professionalism?
Is the information on your site categorized and presented properly, in a logical and user-centered manner?
Is your website easy to use? Are all functions intuitive?
Are pages laid out in an uncluttered, user-friendly fashion? Do pages take advantage of eye-tracking principles and utilize the "hot spot" appropriately?
Does your site appeal to the needs of your customers? Does it lead the visitor down a seamless path to conversion?
Is the site's copy appropriate for the web? Is it appropriate for the target audience? Is it free from spelling and grammatical errors? Does it grab the visitor's attention and provide the right of information in the right place?
There are special requirements for ecommerce sites. Are shopping cart and checkout areas free of errors, distractions and unnecessary steps?
Do technical glitches get in the way of functionality? Can the website easily be used by visitors with older computers or less common operating systems and browsers?
We customize every usability audit to meet the unique requirements of the client. In most cases, the process involves five steps:
The first task is to decide what needs to be tested. As mentioned above, usability audits may be performed on the entire site, or restricted to certain portions (e.g. shopping cart, landing pages, contact forms, etc.)
Before conducting our audit, we work with the client to ensure we have all background information necessary to deliver meaningful results. We may ask for traffic reports, customer demographics / psychographics, sales data, etc.
In some cases, we may recommend a detailed Web Analytics review of your site.
The backbone of our audit is our proprietary, expertly-conducted usability inspection. For a site-wide audit, we examine over 500 aspects of your website to ensure it meets usability best practices.
In many cases, the next step is to conduct usability tests with people who represent your customer base. We've found there's simply no substitute for observing target customers attempting to navigate a site.
For more details, see User Testing.
The final step is to compile the information gathered during all the testing processes, and to distill and organize it into a readable, actionable document.
After completing our Usability Audit, we deliver the results in a written report. The following are included:
Your website is assigned an overall score, as a letter grade. Each section of the report is also given a letter grade.
The Executive Summary will include descriptions of the major problems found, as well as feedback on what your website does well. (It's important to know what your site does well, so you don't inadvertently change these aspects when making revisions.)
The performance of your website in each category is described in detail. In preparing the report, we consolidate the findings of our usability experts, as well as the results of the usability tests on actual subjects (where commissioned). A typical report will also contain dozens of screen shots to illustrate any problems found.
The report will conclude with an action plan, explaining the changes we recommend you make. To ensure the plan is actionable, it is organized by priority of importance, and further divided between "easy fixes" and other repairs.
To find out how you can benefit from a Usability Audit, Contact Us.
