What is a UX audit and what does it include?
Updated February 5, 2025 6 min read
A UX audit is a systematic evaluation of your website’s user experience, identifying friction points that hurt conversions and providing prioritized recommendations for improvement.
What a UX audit evaluates
A comprehensive e-commerce UX audit examines:
User flows
- Homepage to product discovery
- Product page experience
- Add-to-cart and cart experience
- Checkout process
- Account creation and login
- Search and filtering
Usability factors
- Navigation clarity and findability
- Information architecture
- Content readability and scannability
- Form design and error handling
- Mobile experience
- Page load performance
Conversion elements
- Value proposition clarity
- Trust signals and social proof
- Call-to-action effectiveness
- Urgency and scarcity usage
- Cross-sell and upsell opportunities
Accessibility
- Keyboard navigation
- Screen reader compatibility
- Color contrast
- WCAG compliance issues
Common audit deliverables
What you receive depends on the audit scope, but typically includes:
Basic audit
- Video walkthrough with commentary
- List of issues found
- High-level recommendations
Comprehensive audit
- Detailed written report
- Issues prioritized by impact and effort
- Annotated screenshots
- Competitive analysis
- Specific design recommendations
- Implementation roadmap
Premium audit
- Everything above, plus:
- Figma mockups showing solutions
- Session recording analysis
- Analytics deep-dive
- A/B testing recommendations
- Follow-up consultation
When you need a UX audit
Consider an audit when:
- Conversion rates have plateaued despite traffic growth
- You’re planning a redesign and need direction
- Bounce rates are higher than industry average
- Cart abandonment is above 70%
- Mobile converts significantly worse than desktop
- You’ve never had an outside expert review your site
- Customer feedback mentions usability issues
UX audit vs user testing
| UX Audit | User Testing |
|---|---|
| Expert evaluation | Real users performing tasks |
| Based on heuristics and best practices | Based on observed behavior |
| Faster and more cost-effective | More time and recruitment needed |
| Finds usability violations | Finds unexpected user behaviors |
| Good for identifying known patterns | Good for discovering unknown issues |
Both methods are valuable and complementary. Audits are typically done first, with user testing validating specific concerns.
How to choose an auditor
Look for:
- E-commerce experience – General UX knowledge isn’t enough
- Relevant portfolio – Have they worked with similar stores?
- Clear methodology – How do they conduct audits?
- Actionable deliverables – Will you know exactly what to fix?
- Results focus – Do they talk about conversions, not just aesthetics?
What happens after an audit
A good audit gives you a prioritized roadmap. Typical next steps:
- Review findings with your team
- Prioritize quick wins (high impact, low effort)
- Plan larger improvements
- Implement changes
- Measure impact
- Iterate based on results
BTNG.studio UX audits
We offer three audit tiers for e-commerce stores:
- QuickScan – Video walkthrough with key issues (48 hours)
- Essential – Detailed report with prioritized recommendations (1 week)
- Complete – Full audit with Figma solutions and implementation support (2 weeks)
Learn more about our research services or book a call to discuss your needs. If you want to understand what a systematic diagnostic process looks like before booking, the conversion diagnostic framework walks through exactly how professionals identify what’s actually broken.