UI/UX audit: why visitors don't get in touch

The site gets visitors, but few enquiries. The online store gets baskets, but most of them are abandoned. A business application was bought, but staff keep using Excel. In all these cases the question is the same: where exactly do people get stuck?

A UI/UX audit answers that question. It is not an opinion on whether the site looks nice, but a systematic overview of what stops users from reaching their goal.

UI and UX in brief

UX (user experience) is how logical and comfortable a solution is to use: whether people find what they are looking for, understand what to do and get to the end. UI (user interface) is what they see: buttons, colours, typography and layout. A beautiful interface can come with a poor user experience and vice versa. The audit looks at both.

What the audit looks at

1. The key journeys

Every site or application has 2–4 actions that matter to the business: sending an enquiry, completing a purchase, booking an appointment, producing a report. I go through these journeys as a first-time user and mark every point where hesitation, confusion or an extra step appears.

2. Clarity and message

Can you tell within the first five seconds what the business offers and to whom? Does the button text say what happens after the click? Can the price, the timeline and the next step be found? Often the biggest problem is not the design but the text.

3. Forms

A form is where the most people give up. Too many fields, required fields with no reason, unclear error messages, and a form that wipes everything entered when there is an error. Every field you leave out increases the chance the form gets sent.

4. Mobile view

Most visitors come from a phone, but sites are often designed and tested on a computer. Can the buttons be tapped with a finger, is the text readable without zooming, and is the important information visible without long scrolling?

5. Trust

Can you see who is behind the site? Are there contact details, real examples of work and clear terms? Especially in an online store and next to an enquiry form, a lack of trust is a frequent reason for giving up.

6. Accessibility

Contrast, keyboard usability, image alt texts and labels on form fields. This is needed both for users with disabilities and for everyone using the site in sunlight or with one hand.

7. Data, if it exists

If the site collects analytics, I look at where people leave, what they search for and which pages bring enquiries. Data shows where the problem is. The walk-through shows why.

What the audit gives you

The result of the audit is a list of findings, each with:

• what the problem is and where it is (with a screenshot);
• why it is a problem: what happens to the user at that moment;
• a concrete fix;
• a priority: impact on the business and amount of work.

The priorities show where to start. Usually there are 3–5 findings that deliver most of the result and can be done quickly. Those go first.

When an audit isn't enough

If the site or application is so old that fixes won't help, or the business's offer has changed in the meantime, a new design makes more sense. Then the work starts with planning the user journey and an interactive prototype that can be tested before development. The audit helps here too: it shows which mistakes to avoid in the new design.

What the audit costs

A UI/UX audit starts at €390. A full design project with a prototype starts at €1200. The packages are listed on the pricing page. If you don't know whether you need a UI/UX audit or SEO, start with the free website audit. It shows whether the problem is that visitors don't come, or that they don't get as far as an enquiry.

See how I do UI/UX design, or order an audit. Include a link to the site or application and describe which action the user should reach.