Picture this: you have a product that has been successful in the past, but you’re now starting to lose customers to your competitors. Your team has worked hard to create a fantastic product, but over time, the user interface has become outdated, and it’s starting to affect your bottom line. You know you need to update your platform, but you’re not sure where to start, and you don’t want to risk losing more customers.
The truth is, having an intuitive and user-friendly interface is crucial to winning and retaining customers.
In today’s market, users expect a seamless experience, and if your product feels outdated they will quickly move on to your competitors. But updating your interface is easier said than done, and it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
Over the years, we have assessed and diagnosed products in wide ranging industries with varying complexity. We understand that each product is unique, and we take the time to learn about our customer’s business and their customers to provide personalized recommendations on initial steps they can take to modernize their platform.
We are firm believers in talking to real users, and when we do so, we want to make sure we have a clear understanding of where the platform is today. A way we do that is by performing a UI Audit. Running a UI audit will allow our team to thoroughly and objectively identify critical design issues and establish recommendations for next steps so our customers can regain their competitive advantage.
What is a UI Audit?
A UI Audit is a standardized design assessment performed by our UX experts to evaluate a website, app, or product based on established industry usability principles.
One of the methodologies we use in our UI Audit is a Heuristic Evaluation, a methodology that was developed by Jacob Nielsen. The evaluation consists of 10 key principles covering various aspects of human-centered design. To ensure consistency, each principle is rated on a 0-5 scale. A score of 0 indicates a negative user experience, while a score of 5 indicates a successful user experience. During the evaluation process, the expert identifies potential issues that could negatively impact the user experience and provide actionable recommendations to improve the design accordingly.
Who is involved in the UI Audit?
Typically our team of user experience experts is composed of one lead or senior designer, a user experience researcher, and a product manager. Our experts have knowledge and training in design evaluations, information architecture, visual design, user-centered design, user metrics, strategic thinking, and product and design principles. When evaluating design, their background and expertise allows them to understand the implications and intricacies of how these play out in the designs. Upon completing their assessments, the evaluators compile their results to share and make actionable recommendations for your product based on the importance and frequency, and severity of the issues discovered.
When to conduct a UI Audit?
Our clients often express concerns about their product’s usability and feel frustrated about not knowing where to start. They understand that there is a problem but are not sure which issue to tackle first. While they may have identified certain pain points, they need help identifying specific design principles that hinder user experience.
If you hear any of the following questions or statements, a UI Audit might be a great starting point to evaluate the design of your product:
| QUESTIONS AROUND | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|
| What the system is doing behind the scenes | Is the system working? Or is the system frozen? What’s taking so long? I need help to understand what is going on. Is the system frozen? |
| Clarity of the information that is being presented | What does this mean? How do I use this? Where can I find this? |
| Their ability to perform certain actions | How do I get back to where I was? How do I cancel this? Can I undo this? Did I just make a mistake? Can I stop this action? |
| Lack of consistency and patterns | Why is this different from before? Why doesn’t this work like the other similar systems? |
| Apparent mistakes and errors | Why is this not working? Wait, did I just make a mistake? Wait, but where do I undo this? Why do I see an error message? Why can’t I proceed? |
| Relying on their memory to perform tasks | What do I do now? How do I use this feature again? Where can I find this option? What’s the next step? Why am I stuck here? It always takes us forever to onboard any new users |
| Flexibility and efficiency of use | How do I do this faster? Can I customize this? How do I use shortcuts? Why do I have to repeat the same actions? |
| Aesthetics and design | Why does this look cluttered? This looks very outdated. There needs to be more consistency in this design. All this is very overwhelming, and I need a lot of time to figure out the system. |
What are the benefits of conducting audits?
UI audits are quick and accessible
UI audits offer a quick and accessible way to assess the validity of a design, particularly when resources and time are limited. Additionally, they provide a baseline assessment to identify areas for improvement and set up a well-organized plan with a solid foundation established through the UX evaluation; your team can confidently understand where to start in your plan of attack to take corrective actions to enhance the user experience and identifying specific steps that need to be taken during the redesign process to achieve significant improvements in usability and overall user satisfaction.
UI audits focus on user research and improve usability testing down the line
By conducting a thorough UX evaluation prior to usability testing, you can minimize the likelihood of encountering basic usability issues during testing and ensure that the feedback you receive from users is more reliable and insightful. When usability testing is conducted on a design that has not been adequately evaluated, the feedback received from users can be compromised. Users may struggle with basic usability issues that could have been easily resolved before the testing phase. This can lead to a less effective testing process and less actionable feedback.
UI audits help define metrics to make informed decisions and measure the impact of your redesign investment
Utilizing metrics to evaluate the design, UX assessments help determine actionable steps to get a product back on track and improve overall user experience. The use of clear metrics in UX evaluations allows for greater clarity and objectivity in determining the impact of design and determining the next steps, such as clarifying objectives, focus user testing, reallocating resources, or revising timelines.
Are you struggling to define where to begin redesigning your product for a better user experience?
At Digital Scientists, we recommend UI evaluations for anyone considering redesigning an existing product. These evaluations can help optimize the user experience and ensure that key design principles are met and integrated into your new product experience. By doing so, your company can modernize its product, regain its competitive advantage, increase sales, and become the leading competitor that others strive to emulate. If you’re interested in learning more about UX evaluations and how they can benefit your team, company, and product, let’s talk.
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