UX audit - the first step to increased sales
When I'm involved in projects that aim to 'replace' an old e-commerce platform with a new one, I often hear the phrase: "It's best to design everything from scratch. Although often sites built several years ago, indeed require a new approach to the user this... how can you be sure that this 'new' will not be a beautifully packaged bag of old problems?
What if we don't have enough budget for research such as in-depth interviews, focus group meetings, or the traffic on the site isn't enough for meaningful A/B testing? Should we completely destroy the old platform and start with a clean slate? Definitely not. We should start with a usability audit. But why? Let me explain why a ux audit is so important.
When should you do a UX audit?
To begin with, it is good to answer the question of when a UX audit will be effective. I hinted in the introduction that it is good to think about an audit when we want to replace an old platform with a new one.
It might seem that there is no business case for analyzing a product that is about to be shut down. But are we sure it does? Let's think about this for a moment. Of course, one can start designing the user journey process, functionality and, finally, screens from scratch and hope to 'hit' users' needs after launch. However from a strategic point of view, it looks a bit like a lottery. Sometimes we'll hit it, sometimes we won't... If we don't hit it, we'll probably eliminate problems later - at the stage of studying mock-ups or analyzing a working product.
In both of these cases, the resources needed to eliminate potential problems will be far greater than the resources needed for the initial usability audit. In the first situation we design more mock-ups than needed, in the second we write code for the same functionality several times. So what does an audit provide in this situation? It allows us to see the weakest points in the process and orient the team to fix them first. In addition, it allows us to transfer working elements of the 'old' product to the new one.
Therefore, the audit should be conducted BEFORE the digital product re-design process begins. Another good time for an audit is just before the launch of a new version of the product. This allows you to road map the development of the product and have the vendor, such as the UX agency designing the site, checked by other experts. In the best case scenario, you will learn that your product is good and this is reflected in the audit report. The third situation in which you should consider an audit is when KPIs such as Conversion are not satisfying, clearly lower than the market average for the industry, and you have no idea at what point in the process users abandon your site.
What gives you a UX audit?
In the simplest terms, an audit provides a complete picture of your e-commerce site from the user's point of view. Everything is taken into account, from aesthetics, to functionality, to the smooth transition between points in the user's path, screens or channels (online/offline). This holistic approach allows you to understand how a user uses your product. Where he clicks, where he looks, where he doesn't get to, where he leaves, where he spends far more time than he should... We have many research possibilities, but it all comes down to the word 'experience'. We study customer satisfaction at every stage of the buying process.
One may ask: Ok..., customer satisfaction and experience, but what impact does that have on my business? The answer is HUGE. 88% of users will not return to a site if they encountered so-called 'Bad ux'. An audit, on the other hand, allows you to formulate research hypotheses and verify them not only based on heuristics (commonly known principles), but also on data. At Monogo, we compare all hypotheses and recommendations of the UX researcher with the data and check - if we were right. At Monogo we operate on numbers, facts and data. This is what should characterize a good UX audit - a report that compiles the researcher's observations with data.
The second extremely important element of the audit is the list of errors with categorization. It contains all possible observations broken down by the severity of the error (basic, medium and critical). I will not go into the semantics of these terms, the classification seems clear. It is known that the removal of critical errors should be pursued first. And finally, the result of the audit should be recommendations for change. Preferably in the form of a description and optionally lo-fi wireframes, so that it is clear in what direction to develop the product and what approach to the problem should guarantee success.
UX audit methodologies
You already know when to do an audit, what should be the result, but it's impossible not to mention the methodologies used when conducting an audit. Of course, each researcher may approach his work a little differently, have his workshop developed and mix often several methods. Depending on the budget, he may supplement commonly used surveys with in-depth interviews or competitive research. However, I will share the most popular auditing methods.
The most popular method is Heuristic Analysis. It is a method based on Nielsen's 10 heuristics, Connel's 30 usability principles or Gerhardt-Powals' 9 cognitive rules. They describe the rules that a service should follow to make its use pleasant and without friction. Of course, these are extremely general rules and the methodology requires extraordinary experience of the researcher. Very often at Monogo we compare it with another method, so as to check whether the conclusions formulated with it are correct and also appear in a similar form regardless of the chosen method.
The second method is called 'Cognitive Wandering'. Cognitive Wandering works great if your e-commerce site needs to be comfortable to use on the first visit. The researcher prepares the scenarios he or she intends to complete during the study, then steps into the user's shoes and tries to walk through each scenario. This method is extremely effective, but it requires good thinking about the scenarios. Some errors may go undetected if the scenario does not assume they will be investigated.
The third method is the so-called 'Checklist'. This is a list, often a proprietary list prepared on the basis of industry and market analysis. It contains a number of items, and each item is evaluated in the form of a closed Yes/No question. For each Yes answer, a certain number of points is awarded. The final evaluation is presented in numerical form, showing the state of the service vs. market standards, for example.
And finally, as a fourth point, I wanted to emphasize the use of data. We use data from Google Analytics or heat maps or specialized reports such as Baymard Institute etc. This helps to juxtapose hypotheses and recommendations formed from the above with data. If any hypothesis is reflected in the data it means we were right. We clearly indicate if any hypothesis did not work or requires additional research. Only this approach allows us to get a real picture reflected in the facts. Of course, we match the above most popular methodologies in individual cases with in-depth interviews, personas, empathy maps, etc.
Summary
If you want to start working on increasing conversions in your online store then a UX audit will be a great step forward. It will allow you to design not only a screen-by-screen store, but more importantly a product development strategy. Strategy is the most important thing. A UX audit allows you to take pointed actions that have a real impact on increasing sales. For example, why redesign an entire store if we can start with... Home page, suffering from a high bounce rate? Or, why design a product card from scratch if it doesn't currently suffer from the ills leading to a shaky customer satisfaction at this point in the process? Allow yourself to be comfortable with your work and be able to manage your project budget effectively.
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