Score your product with the UX audit checklist

Have you picked the one metric this audit exists to move (activation, trial-to-paid, checkout completion, enquiries)?

Have you listed the journeys in scope: signup, activation, the primary workflow, and checkout or upgrade?

Have you gathered the evidence you already hold: analytics funnels, session recordings, support tickets and sales-call notes?

Do you know who will act on the findings, so each item can be written for the person who has to fix it?

Can a first-time user complete each in-scope task without help or a tutorial?

Is the next step obvious on every screen, or does the user have to guess?

Is there any screen with no way forward or back?

Does each step ask only for what it needs at that moment?

Can users recover from a mistake without starting again?

Is the most common path also the easiest one to find?

Are labels written in your users' words rather than internal team language?

Can a user tell where they are and how they got there?

Are the pages people look for most reachable from the main navigation?

If there is search, does it return useful results for the terms people actually use?

Is there one clear way to get help or contact you from any page?

Does every field have a visible label, not only placeholder text?

Do error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it?

Is validation shown next to the field at a sensible moment, rather than only after a failed submit?

Does each field bring up the right mobile keyboard and support autofill?

Has every optional or unnecessary field been questioned?

In multi-step forms, is progress visible and is entered data kept when users go back?

Can a new visitor say what the product does and who it is for from the first screen?

Is there one primary action per screen, visibly stronger than the rest?

Do button labels describe the outcome ("Start free trial") rather than the mechanism ("Submit")?

Is the price, or the cost of the next step, stated before the user has to commit?

Is proof (customers, results, security) placed next to the decision it supports?

Does the interface show status while something loads or saves?

Are empty, loading, error and success states designed rather than left as defaults?

Does every important action get a clear confirmation?

Do destructive actions ask for confirmation or offer undo?

Do security, privacy and payment moments say plainly what will happen to the user's data or money?

Does body text have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, and large text at least 3:1?

Can every interactive element be reached and operated with the keyboard alone?

Is keyboard focus always visible and in a logical order?

Do images that carry meaning have text alternatives?

Is colour never the only way information is conveyed?

Do inputs, buttons and links have names a screen reader can announce clearly?

Does each journey work at phone width without horizontal scrolling?

Are tap targets large enough, and spaced so they can be hit without zooming?

Is the key action reachable without being hidden behind a fixed bar or the on-screen keyboard?

Do tables, charts and long forms have a considered small-screen layout?

Does the interface respond quickly at the moment the user needs to act, not only on first load?

Does content jump around as the page loads?

Is anything important held back by slow scripts or heavy images?

Can you name the funnel step or drop-off figure that each finding explains?

Have you watched session recordings at the point where users leave?

Have you matched findings to support tickets or sales questions about the same screen?

Has each problem been reproduced on more than one device and by more than one person?