Check eight areas: goals and data, usability heuristics, key tasks, navigation and structure, forms, accessibility, mobile and speed, and content. Back each finding with evidence (analytics, a recording, a test session, a standard) and rank them by severity and reach. The ranked list becomes the redesign brief.
1. Goals and data
Before looking at screens, gather:
- The business goals for the site or product, and the measures that track them.
- Key events counted correctly in analytics; Google Analytics lets you mark events as key events.
- Where users drop off in the main funnels.
- What users search for on the site, and what they ask support.
2. Usability heuristics
Review each key screen against Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics (1994, last reviewed January 2024):
- Visibility of system status: does the screen show what is happening?
- Match with the real world: does it use the user's words, not internal terms?
- User control and freedom: can people undo and leave?
- Consistency and standards: do the same things look and work the same way?
- Error prevention: are mistakes hard to make?
- Recognition rather than recall: are options visible on screen?
- Flexibility and efficiency: are there shortcuts for frequent users?
- Aesthetic and minimalist design: is anything on screen that does not help?
- Help users recover from errors: do error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it?
- Help and documentation: is help there when needed?
3. Key tasks
List the three to five tasks that matter most, such as finding a product, requesting a quote or completing setup, and walk through each step by step, noting every point of friction. Then watch real users try the same tasks; Nielsen's article on testing with five users (2000) argues that about five per round find most problems.
4. Navigation and structure
Check:
- Menu labels use words users recognize.
- Users can tell where they are and how to get back.
- Important pages are no more than a few clicks from the start.
- Search works and handles misspellings.
5. Forms
Forms are where tasks end. Check:
- Only the fields you use; labels above fields.
- Errors shown next to the field, with how to fix them; no lost input.
- The right keyboard on phones for each field.
- A clear confirmation of what happens next.
6. Accessibility
Check key screens against WCAG 2.2 Level AA, the current W3C Recommendation (US rules such as ADA Title II cite WCAG 2.1 AA, which 2.2 includes):
- Text contrast and readable sizes.
- Every function works by keyboard, with visible focus.
- Images have text alternatives; form fields have labels.
- Targets meet WCAG 2.2's minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or its exceptions.
7. Mobile and speed
Pew Research Center's mobile fact sheet (19 October 2026) finds 91% of US adults own a smartphone. Check against web.dev's Web Vitals:
- Every key task works on a real phone, one-handed.
- Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint within 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift within 0.1.
- No pop-ups that cover the page on small screens.
8. Content
Check:
- Headings say what each page or section is for.
- Text answers the user's questions in the order they ask them.
- Buttons say what they do.
- Out-of-date or duplicate pages are found and listed.
Ranking the findings
Rate each finding by severity (does it block the task, slow it or annoy?), by how many users it affects, and by the effort to fix. Attach the evidence: a screenshot, an analytics figure, a test clip or the standard it breaks. Fix blockers on the current site now; the rest becomes the redesign brief.
Conclusion
A UX audit checks goals and data, usability heuristics, key tasks, navigation, forms, accessibility, mobile and speed, and content, then ranks the findings with evidence. Run it before any redesign so the new design fixes known problems, and use Nielsen's heuristics, five-user tests, WCAG 2.2 and Core Web Vitals as the yardsticks.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. Our UI/UX design team runs this audit and designs and tests the fixes, and our website redesign work rebuilds from the findings.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.