Setting up for success: the power of UX audits and research
When approaching the design and build of websites and digital products within the corporate B2B world, investing in a solid UX strategy is often marginalised, viewed as a “nice-to-have” that time and budget may not allow. While UX should lead every project, deeper research and audits often get squeezed into early discovery phases – offering guidance but limited by tight timelines, budget constraints, and an underappreciation of UX benefits.
Some may challenge this, and rightly so. Not all corporate businesses neglect UX; many have in-house UX teams for consumer-facing operations. But often, even at the corporate level, the true value of a UX audit is overlooked.
The truth? You don’t know what you don’t know. A UX audit can be a game-changer, whether as a starting point for a full digital revamp or as a standalone project. Don’t underestimate its power.
In this article, we break down what a UX audit entails, highlighting the key stages and activities we undertake – whether it's a standalone audit or integrated into a full website design and build project.
What is a UX audit?
As a vital part of the early discovery phase, UX audits give an in-depth evaluation of your current digital experience. This process helps us identify and prioritise key areas for improvement, ensuring we base decisions on real insights, not assumptions. By aligning with the Double Diamond problem-solving framework, we dig deeper to unlock opportunities for future development.
A logical start point: Harnessing first-party data to uncover key trends
Each client has unique needs, but our go-to starting point is reviewing first-party data for analysis to spot broad trends. We leverage tools like Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity for this.
Google Analytics lets us drill into reports and clickstream analysis, identifying which pages, content, and user journeys generate the most engagement. This enables us to prioritise areas for deeper research where it matters most.
Microsoft Clarity complements this by giving us a visual understanding of user behaviour. Screen recordings, scroll maps, and heatmaps reveal how users interact with the product, showing us dead clicks and scroll depth to optimise content placement and enhance usability.
Providing both qualitative and quantitative data, both tools provide essential insights, even early on, often challenging project assumptions and revealing new opportunities.
Deepening user understanding through primary research
Understanding user behaviour through analytics is only part of the equation. We also conduct primary user research to gather deep insights into a user’s needs, motivations and pain points.
Our methods include engaging directly with users and stakeholders through interviews to understand their experiences and expectations. We often send out surveys to collect feedback from a broader user base, helping us validate hypotheses and gather insights on select aspects of the experience.
To gain real-world insights into behaviours and usability issues that might not be evident from analytics alone, we also observe users interacting directly with a client’s website or product.
Aligning with WCAG accessibility standards
As part of our audit process, we’ll conduct a thorough accessibility assessment to ensure your website or product meets the latest WCAG standards. This includes evaluating screen reader compatibility, colour contrast ratios, alt text implementation, and ensuring the product is fully accessible for users with assistive technologies. With the European Accessibility Act set for enforcement in June 2025, addressing these issues now is more crucial than ever to stay compliant and inclusive.
Leveraging industry best practice
Building on these foundational workstreams, we conduct a comprehensive heuristic review to optimise your content, design, and user experience based on proven industry best practice. This helps us pinpoint and resolve factors that could frustrate users—like confusing navigation, unnecessary steps, or missing calls-to-action. We also ensure that in-page content is concise, relevant, and organised to clearly communicate your key messages. Where suitable, we introduce engaging elements such as animations, micro-interactions, and impactful visuals to enhance the overall user experience and create moments of delight.
Triage and prioritising next steps
Once we’ve compiled all insights and recommendations, we collaborate with our clients to triage and prioritise actions. We evaluate each recommendation based on factors like reach, risk, impact, cost, and technical feasibility, weighing them against potential business and user experience benefits. Once priorities are set, we seamlessly integrate these tasks into the client's existing roadmap, ensuring smooth execution and alignment with their strategic goals.
Monitor and optimise deployment
After deployment, we conduct regular check-ins to track progress, assess the impact of implemented changes, and uncover new opportunities for continuous refinement and optimisation.
Let’s explore how we can support your business
Each UX audit structure is bespoke to every client, and we're comfortable adapting to any considerations unique to your business. With over 20 years of experience, SampsonMay is here to support you through this process. Contact us today to schedule an initial intro call so we can work out a plan for how we can elevate your user experience.
