UX Audit and UX Research. Yes or No?

So, your beloved brainchild is off and running. Yet things are not going entirely to plan. Despite the excellence and desirability of your product, people are simply not signing up in sufficient numbers. You suspect that people are staring at your app cussing and groaning in sheer frustration at the obstacle course you’re putting them through. (You think this might be happening, though you can’t prove it, at least not yet).

Can you blame your public for losing patience? Life is difficult enough these days without some online finance company creating a product you want and need, then making it impossible for you to purchase it. The more time people spend in the digital world, the less patience they have with clumsy navigation.

How did it get like this? Let’s start with a UX Audit…

UX Audit
Was it something you did?

Maybe you gave them too many choices and features. The news here is that people are basically lazy online. If they are in pursuit of something that fascinates them (a new power drill, the perfect cake recipe, football stats, dramatic weight loss, celebrity mishaps) they find a reserve of patience to draw on. And they take great delight in exploring options. But no, not for a new bank account. If what you show them is too complex, and hard to navigate, off they go, probably to one of your competitors.

Or was it something you didn’t do?

Did the design skimp on the details? Big picture thinking has its place in digital design, but UX needs deep attention to detail. Design that signs off with a look and a typeface and expects a pat on the head is not enough. You can’t just get by on charm.

You need to check the individual components of your website for functionality. You may be contemplating doing it yourself, like you might contemplate attempting to repair your car, your washing machine or your laptop. (Good luck with that). Or you could hire someone with vast experience who knows what they’re doing and has the testimonials to prove it.

What’s under the bonnet?

Here’s what needs inspecting:

• Accessibility
• Visual hierarchy
• Text and non-text content
• Labelling (page titles, breadcrumbs, grids, etc.)
• Search and workflow navigation
• Forms
• Controls and links
• Feedback elements

Do you already know your users really well?

Of course you do. Or do you simply think that you do? And would it do any harm to test your beliefs by asking them what they think? Especially if it might give you a handle on making your UX run more smoothly. Only you can answer that.

Why UX Research? Good question…

Some people will tell you that any kind of research is unnecessary, pointing to Steve Jobs as someone who had little time for it. Steve Jobs was a genius. Are you? If the answer is ‘yes’, you might as well stop reading now. Otherwise, acknowledge that you may need a bit of help.

No focus group ever created a product. But, if you’re tough with confronting your own preconceptions and rigorous with the questions you ask (specific, actionable, practical), you might just unearth some nuggets of information about people’s needs, which could help you invent something new or make your existing offering function more smoothly. Better still, engage a third party with enough experience, brain power and objectivity to ferret out what you need to know.

Our view is that not doing UX research is condemning your product to a death which may be anything from lingering to rapid.

What UX Research involves

We gather market intelligence and analysis on demand from our team of CX, UX, UI experts and learn to what extent your web or app design is meeting your business objective.

The areas we focus on are

• Your customers
• Your competitors
• Your industry
• Your capabilities

Your customers

The most important thing about customers is not what they say, think, like or dislike. It’s what they do. This is what UX research needs to find out. Because when you know what they actually do in a given situation, you can design your UX to work with that.

Your competitors

We analyse their successes and failures. And if they’re doing something really well, we scrutinise it to see if it could work for you.

Your Industry

We examine trends within your industry and identify opportunities and problems, both for now and in the future.

Your capabilities

How well are the skills of people in your company adapted to delivering the best possible customer experience? Have you got the bodies for the task?

Where to now?

If now you’re thinking that your UX could work a lot better, please call or visit

Get in touch

We can tell you more about designing frictionless UX, and the other ways we can help you realise your digital potential. Like CX/UX consulting, Analytics, Content, Talent...