What is a UX audit? It is a structured review of a website or app, carried out against established usability principles, that finds where people struggle and ranks the problems by how much they cost you. You receive a list of issues, evidence for each, and a recommended fix. It is often the fastest way to learn why visitors are leaving a page, abandoning a form, or not finding what they came for.
This guide explains how an audit works, which principles it uses, what you get at the end, and how it differs from user testing.
What does a UX audit actually involve?
An auditor walks through your product the way your users do. They work through your main tasks, such as finding a service, buying a product, booking a call, or filling in a form, and note every point where the design makes the task harder than it should be.
Most audits combine four inputs.
- Heuristic review. The auditor checks each screen against a set of usability principles, described below.
- Task walkthroughs. They complete the key journeys step by step and record friction.
- Analytics. Page views, drop-off points, search terms, and device splits show where people actually struggle.
- Accessibility and mobile checks. They test with a keyboard, check colour contrast and labels, and use real phone sizes.
Which principles does a UX audit use?
The most common set is Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics, published in the 1990s and still used because they describe how people behave, not how technology looks. In short:
- Visibility of system status: people should always know what is happening.
- Match between the system and the real world: use words and ideas your users already know.
- User control and freedom: provide a clear way to go back or undo.
- Consistency and standards: the same word or action should mean the same thing everywhere.
- Error prevention: design so mistakes are less likely.
- Recognition rather than recall: show options instead of making people remember them.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use: serve beginners and experienced users.
- Aesthetic and minimalist design: leave out information that is irrelevant or rarely needed.
- Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors: plain-language messages that suggest a fix.
- Help and documentation: easy to search and focused on tasks.
These are rules of thumb, not strict standards. Nielsen's research found that a single reviewer catches only some of the problems, so audits are stronger when more than one person reviews the product and the results are merged.
What do you receive at the end?
A useful UX audit report contains:
- A summary of the main findings in plain language
- A list of issues, each with a screenshot or example
- A severity rating, so you can see what matters most
- A recommended fix for every issue
- A suggested order of work, balancing impact against effort
- Notes on what already works well, so you do not break it
The ranking is what makes the report useful. Ten issues that cost you sales are not equal to ten that annoy one in a hundred visitors, and a good audit says which are which.
How is a UX audit different from user testing?
An audit is an expert review. Someone with experience inspects the product against known principles. User testing watches real people try to use it and notes what they do.
Each finds problems the other misses. An audit is quick and does not need recruited participants. Testing shows surprising behaviour that no checklist predicts. Many teams start with an audit to remove obvious problems, then run a small round of tests on the improved version. Nielsen Norman Group has long argued that a handful of test participants reveals most of the major issues in a given round, which keeps testing affordable. We cover that idea in our post on whether UX design is worth it for a small business.
When does a website or app need a UX audit?
- Visitors arrive but few of them enquire, sign up, or buy.
- People abandon forms or checkout at the same step.
- Support keeps getting the same questions about how to do something.
- The product has grown screen by screen and feels inconsistent.
- You are planning a redesign and want to know what to keep and what to change.
- You are about to build something new and want to avoid known mistakes.
An audit is especially useful before a redesign. It turns "the site feels old" into a list of specific problems, which makes the redesign brief better. See our website redesign checklist for how the two fit together.
A short UX audit checklist you can use today
Open your site on a phone and ask these questions about your most important page.
- Can a new visitor tell within a few seconds what you do and who it is for?
- Is the main action obvious, and does it work on a small screen?
- Do menus and labels use words your customers use?
- Can you reach the next step in a form without confusion, and do errors explain how to fix themselves?
- Do buttons and links look clickable, and are they large enough to tap?
- Is the text readable without zooming, with enough contrast?
- Does the page load quickly on a mobile connection?
- Can you use the whole page with a keyboard alone?
- Is there a clear way to contact you or get help?
If several answers are no, a fuller audit will pay for itself.
How long does a UX audit take, and what does it cost?
Both depend on the size of the product. A small marketing site with a handful of key journeys can be reviewed much faster than a web application with dozens of screens and several user roles. The number of journeys you want covered, the amount of analytics available, and whether you want accessibility testing included all change the effort.
We do not quote figures here, because the published ones vary too much to be useful. A sensible provider will ask which journeys matter most, look at your analytics, and then send a proposal with the scope, the timeline, and the price, so you know what you are paying for before it starts.
What kinds of problems do audits find?
These examples are typical and illustrative, not findings from a particular client.
- A contact form asks for a company size and a budget before a visitor has said what they need. Many visitors give up at that step.
- The main menu uses internal wording, such as the name of a department, where customers would search for a service.
- A call to action is a plain link in the body text, with no visual weight, on a page whose whole purpose is to produce enquiries.
- Error messages say "invalid input" without saying which field is wrong or how to fix it.
- Buttons on a phone sit close together, so people tap the wrong one.
- A multi-step process gives no sign of how many steps remain.
- Text sits on a background with too little contrast to read in daylight.
Each of these is cheap to fix once someone has noticed it.
How do you decide what to fix first?
A good audit sorts problems on two things: how much each one hurts visitors and how much effort the fix takes. Start with the problems that are severe and quick to fix, since they give the largest return for the least work. Next come severe problems that need more effort, planned as projects. Small annoyances that take minutes can be batched into a tidy-up. Items that are both minor and expensive can wait, or be dropped.
Ask your auditor to show this ranking, and to say which fixes depend on others. You then have a plan as well as a list.
Is a UX audit the same as an accessibility audit?
They overlap but they are not the same. A UX audit asks whether people can complete tasks easily. An accessibility audit asks whether people with disabilities can use the product, and checks it against a published standard such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Many usability problems, such as poor contrast and unclear labels, are accessibility problems too, so a good UX audit includes some accessibility checks. If you need to show compliance, ask for a dedicated accessibility review.
What happens after the audit?
You choose which recommendations to act on. Some fixes are small content changes that your own team can make. Others need design and development, and the audit report gives your developers a clear brief. Many teams run a short round of user testing on the changes before they release them, since an audit predicts problems and testing confirms that they are fixed. If the audit shows that the problems run deep, it also becomes the evidence for a redesign, and our website redesign checklist shows how to plan one.
Quick answers
How is a UX audit different from a website audit?
A UX audit looks at how easy the site is to use. A broader website audit may also cover technical SEO, speed, security, and content. Ask exactly which areas a provider covers before you compare prices.
Who should do a UX audit?
Ideally someone with experience in usability, who has not worked on the product and sees it fresh. Several reviewers find more problems than one, as Nielsen's research showed, so a small team or a second pair of eyes helps.
Can I run a UX audit on my own site?
You can do a useful first pass using the checklist above and a few outsiders. You are close to your site, so you will miss things a newcomer sees. A professional audit adds experience, a structured method, and a ranked list of fixes.
How Krylo can help
Our team reviews websites and apps against these principles and delivers a ranked list of fixes, then designs and builds them if you want us to. See our UI/UX design services, or tell us about your product.