- **Epistemic status:** #budding As you start working with a new application, it is not a bad idea to audit it to see what problems it has. The purpose of these audits is to run a comprehensive diagnostic test that examines the functionality and performance of an application. It digs deep to uncover why an application isn't performing well. The purpose of the audit is to: - Gather hard data that outlines critical UX issues for applications. - Provide helpful recommendations in resolving all critical issues. - Improve the application for both the end user and publisher. This audit can be done at any time of the project, but usually it is done when a variety of issues are happening. ## The pros and cons of audits The benefits of the audit are that the recommendations based on user data and developers better understand how users think and use their applications, implement better procedures in the app, and meet their KPI's for the solution The downsides of the audit is that a broken application would take a long time and money to audit. The audit can also be affected by the party conducting the examination, since many in-house developers are too close to their products and may form biased opinions even presented with hard data. This can prevent organizations from achieving rampant change in their application, maximizing the user experience. ## How to conduct an audit ![[UX-Audit-Process.jpg]] There is no universal standard of how an audit should be conducted. The following are a few ways an audit can be done: ### Step 1: Understand business objectives of a product When you [[Understand business objectives of a product]] you would be able to recommend an action plan on getting the application to a better state. ### Step 2: Get to know the users You need to [[Get To Know The Users]] and [[Understand user objectives]] that use the application you are doing an audit for. ### Step 3: Observe Application Analytics Review the [[Application Analytics]] to further understand errors and traffic. ### Step 4: Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation Learn [[How to conduct a Heuristic Evaluation]] to measure the Usability of an application. ### Step 5: Delivering the audit report Once, the audit is complete, organize your findings in an extensive report, and deliver it to [[Stakeholders]], development teams, and all other collaborators to keep everyone on the same page. The report should have solutions for each problem listed. ## What to do after the audit The purpose of an audit is to provide meaningful data that can be acted upon. Simply pointing out critical issues of an application won't improve it. After attaining the data, move forward in documenting the key issues that hinder the progress and how they can be resolved. Writing down the information can be enough, but you can use various communication tools can be used to communicate better, such as: - Prototypes - Wireframes - Site maps - User Flows - Personas - [[Empathy Map]] Whatever device used that helps you communicate better your findings with the business, the better. The thing to note that after an audit there is almost always a product redesign. ## Example of an audit The designers at Button printed out every page and every state of the interface of the Dashboard and hung them up in the war room. The team then circled with red sharpies all the inconsistent UI elements. After the audit was done, they brought the front end engineering team to discuss issues they've had when building the Dashboard. This gave insight as to why certain decisions were made and showed what commitment needed to be done to bridge those gaps. They learned the importance of establishing a [[Design Language System]] and to [[Define Team Principles]] that resulted in a [[Design Language System]] that everybody can be proud of and scaled as they grew. --- ## References - “Design Language System. Scaling a Design Team through Systems… | by Patrick N. Lewis | Patrick N Lewis | Medium.” Accessed January 30, 2022. <https://medium.com/patricknlewis/design-language-system-23223dd86b54>. - Nead, Ryan. “UX & UI Audits: What’s Included & How to Audit with User Experience in Mind.” _Dev.Co_ (blog), April 29, 2021. <https://dev.co/ux-ui-audit/>.