UX Techniques and Processes
Tools and processes that can be used in a UX review.
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
This article covers what to consider when doing a UX review on a website. A UX review should identify existing issues as well as identify future improvements for the website.
Establish Goals
The following need to be defined either before (you may have done this during discovery day) or during a UX review:
- Business goals
- User goals
- Types of user
- Important tasks/actions we want users to complete
- Metrics & KPI’s
Once the goals, users, tasks and KPI’s have been established the ideation stage can take place through user story mapping exercises. The outcome of these exercise(s) is to create a feature list, a prioritisation method and an MVP.
Research
Heuristic Evaluation
A review of web-pages by a UX expert to identify elements that break usability rules (using frameworks such as Nielsen’s heuristics).
Competitor Analysis
An exercise in which the strengths and weaknesses of a companies main competitors are analysed.
Data Analytics Review
An analysis of all existing user data; e.g. Google Analytics & Hotjar.
Focus groups
Groups to talk about opinions and feelings towards a specific issue.
User Testing
Groups or 1:1 interviews, either in person or remotely.
Understanding behaviours
User personas
A user persona is a detailed profile of a fictional website user. A persona will include the users needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.
User Journey Mapping
A user journey map (also called a user experience map) shows the journey a customer has while experiencing a product or service. This journey is usually part online and part offline, and may touch 1 or many digital channels.
Information Architecture
The term ‘Information architecture’ (IA) is used to describe how website content is structured (specifically in the following ways):
- How content is labelled (taxonomy)
- How content is grouped (categorised or relationships)
- How content is prioritised (hierarchy and categories)
- How content is related across differing groups (cross linking)
The following exercises can be carried out to help develop and test a proposed website IA.
A user flow is the path taken by a typical user through the website to complete a website.
Click Tests
An exercise which allows us to understand what users would click on first to complete their intended task.
Card sorting
This is an exercise to understand how website users sort and classify/group information. Card sorts can be either open or closed.