How long does a UX audit take?

A focused audit of one key flow can take an afternoon. A whole product takes days, and a lot of that time usually goes into writing findings up rather than finding them.

What is the minimum contrast ratio for text?

The WCAG AA guideline asks for at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text.

How should UX audit findings be recorded?

On the screen they're about, with a screenshot and a clear note of what's wrong and why. Pinned comments in Lasso do this as you go, grouped into collections by flow or severity.

UX audit checklist for websites and web apps

A practical UX audit checklist for websites and web apps, covering navigation, forms, feedback states, accessibility and mobile, and how to record findings so they actually get fixed.

A UX audit is a slow, deliberate walk through a product, looking for the places where people get stuck. You don't need a fancy framework to do a useful one. Pick the two or three flows that matter most, like sign up or checkout, and go through them with the questions below.

Can people find their way around?

At any point, could a new user say where they are and how to get back? Read the menu out loud. If the labels are your team's words rather than your customers' words, people will hesitate. Search should exist wherever there's a lot of content, and it should forgive a typo. If something important takes four clicks to reach, it's probably buried.

Do the forms behave?

Start typing in a field and see whether the label disappears. If it does, people forget what the field was for. Submit with mistakes on purpose. Good errors say what went wrong and how to fix it, right next to the field, rather than in a red banner at the top. Check that required fields are marked and that pressing Enter does what you'd expect.

Does the product talk back?

Every click should produce something visible, whether it's a spinner, a success message or an error. Find the empty states, like a brand new account with no data, and see whether they explain what to do first. Anything destructive should ask before it happens, and ideally offer an undo.

Accessibility basics

Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background, which is the WCAG AA guideline. Pale grey text on white usually fails it. Put the mouse away and try the main flow with only the keyboard, watching for a visible focus outline as you tab. Images that carry meaning need alt text, and no state should be shown by color alone, since plenty of people can't tell red from green.

Mobile

Use your thumb, not a mouse in a small browser window. Are the tap targets big enough? Does anything scroll sideways by accident? Are the main actions within reach, or stranded at the very top of a tall screen?

Write it up so it gets fixed

Finding the problems is usually quicker than writing them up. A 40-row spreadsheet of "issue on settings page" gets skimmed once and ignored.

Pin each finding on the screen it's about with Lasso. It takes the screenshot, keeps the note on the exact element, and you can group findings into collections by flow or severity. Developers get the page and element, and so does an AI agent if you export it.

For a fuller walkthrough of running audits this way, see cutting audit time in half.