Increasing the budget for campaigns to acquire customers will be useless if users leave your site quickly or do not take the action you expect. One of the reasons here may be the low usability of the website. What does it mean? Users have problems navigating through it, finding information that interests them, and successfully completing the entire purchasing process. Low usability translates into a decrease in the company’s credibility and customer loyalty. What can you do in such a situation?
The ux audit can help in this.
Ux audit (usability audit) is one of the fastest methods of improving User Experiece (UX), i.e. the user experience when contacting our website. It consists in an expert assessing various functionalities of a website / application based on special guidelines (so-called heuristics). When should ux audit be performed? Who is it suitable for? If you are familiar with the following statements, perhaps you should consider conducting a usability audit of your website:
1. You notice that many people visit your website, but few take the desired action – purchase, newsletter subscription, reading an article, etc.
This situation does not necessarily mean that the product or service you offer is unattractive. Very often, even users who are interested in the content of the site give up their attempts to use it because of difficulties in using it or the feeling that the site is not worth trusting (e.g. fear of phishing attempts).
2. Your website was created over 3 years ago
Although 3 years does not seem to be a very long period, it is almost an era in the dynamically developing Internet industry. Rapid changes in trends, indicators of good practices, habits and user behavior make it necessary to update the website in order to ensure optimal operation of the website. After a long time, even with regularly updated and expanded sites, it is worth making sure that all elements remain consistent with each other.
3. After rebuilding, your website performs worse than before the rebuild
This is a common situation and is usually the result of a few simple design mistakes. Their repair and helping users to get used to the new site are effective solutions, bringing results at least to the pre-rebuild level.
4. You are planning to redesign your website but you don’t know where to start
Rebuilding a site is always associated with high costs. Instead of relying on the developers’ sense or the aesthetic vision of a graphic designer, it is better to respond to customer needs and ensure a return on investment. Relying on the knowledge of experts will help you avoid stress, waste money and the need for further changes.
5. You have a limited budget but would like to optimize your site
One of the many advantages of usability auditing is that it is more affordable than ux research . So if you want to improve the functioning of your website or application, but you do not have the budget of a large corporation, it is worth starting with this solution. Very often, a few minor changes based on the recommendations of specialists will allow you to fix key errors.
6. You feel that your website or application is complex, so users don’t know how to use it
The cognitive walkthrough method used during the audit allows us to make sure that all the functionalities and content we offer will be easily accessible.
7. You notice that many people enter your website, but leave it very quickly (high bounce rate) or stop the shopping process after adding products to the cart
Such behavior is very often a sign of problems with the website regarding its transparency, consistency, adjustment to users’ expectations and clarity of individual steps.
8. Sales in your online store are significantly lower than sales on the spot
If your product sells great locally, but hardly sells over the Internet, it could be a result of a poorly designed website.
9. You want to know your advantages and opportunities to improve over the competition
What determines the choice of a given website or application is not only the proposed offer, but the ease of use and adaptation to the needs. Usability audit can significantly improve the comfort of using the website, and thus encourage users to use it and increase profits. However, it is important to remember that usability audits require the experience and skills of the experts who conduct them to be effective . It is also important to adjust the audit to the individual needs and goals of a given party.
