The timeframe of a UX audit depends on the goals and scope of the audit. However, we estimate that UX audits generally take 3–4 weeks to complete (from the definition stage up until the recommendations stage).
If you already know what happens during a UX audit, and have an understanding of how UX audits can help grow your business, it is good to also have an awareness of how long a UX audit might take to be conducted.
Survey
A survey is conducted at the beginning of the UX audit to understand the organisation’s level of UX maturity. The survey typically asks team members across the organisation questions relating to how they perceive UX processes within the company and what UX processes or methods are currently in place.
Taking into account the internal preparation of the script, how long it might take to complete the survey, and the time it takes to produce a report with the results, the survey stage usually takes around a day and a half overall to complete.
Workshop
The purpose of the workshop stage is to align an organisation’s business goals and understand their target users, journeys, and current challenges to set the foundation of the UX audit. We conduct a one-and-a-half-hour workshop with key stakeholders to agree on the project objectives, discuss existing pain points, identify target users and discuss users that we can potentially observe, identify primary journeys, define standards, such as accessibility and device support, and benchmarking.
Taking into account the time it takes to prepare the workshop boards, conduct the workshop and create a report on the workshop findings, we expect this stage to also take approximately a day and a half.
User observations
User observations are conducted in UX audits in order to understand exactly how your product is being used so that we can get to the heart of user needs and pain points. Usually, six user observations are conducted remotely to test priority journeys.
This stage encompasses the creation of the research plan and script, participant recruitment, the sessions and the analysis of the sessions. Typically, this stage may take around a week to complete but might take longer, depending on how many user observations you may want us to conduct.
Heuristic evaluation
A heuristic evaluation consists of an assessment of your product against industry-standard usability criteria to identify areas of improvement. Some of the most common usability heuristics used for this evaluation are:
- Visibility of system status
- Match between the system and the real world
- User control and freedom
- Consistency and standards
- Error prevention
- Recognition rather than recall
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and documentation
The evaluation session typically lasts between 2 and 3 hours, depending on the size and complexity of the interface. The evaluator should go through the interface 2–4 times and note down any usability problems before rating its usability against each of the ten heuristics on a scale of 1 to 5. Following this, we will conduct an analysis of the results and present them in a report. Therefore, overall, this stage usually takes a few days to complete.
Proto-persona creation
Following the heuristic evaluation, proto-personas are created using insights gathered from your teams and supplemented by user observations and feedback. Key target audiences are represented as these proto-personas and act as a useful tool to support future decision-making and guide user-centric outputs. This stage involves a 90-minute workshop with key stakeholders to define and prioritise the audience. After the workshop, three proto-personas are created and visualised. Altogether, this process takes approximately three days.
Reporting and recommendations
Lastly, we bring together our findings across from each stage into one UX audit report, including an indication of UX maturity. We present you with a set of informative insights and actionable recommendations to guide your product. This stage, considering the preparation of the report and the presentation to key stakeholders, might take up to a week to complete.
To conclude
An idea of how long each stage of the UX audit process takes is always good to keep in mind when considering whether you would like to conduct one for your business.
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