Web Site Audits
A Web Site Audit can be done informally through consulting meetings and conference calls (see Web Site consulting) or it can be presented in a formal document for internal company review and circulation. Obviously the formal documentation will include many more hours of research. These are typically 20-30 page documents that outline usability issues on your site, competitor analysis, target customer needs, search engine analysis, general findings and recommended revisions based on the assessment below.
Formal Web Site Audit Process
Definition
Performance UI requires a conversation with a marketing representative at your company. During this time, we will interview this representative on business goals, marketing positioning, competitors and target customers. The interview process might also include subsequent interviews with customers.
Assessment
During this stage, we will perform the following assessments:
- First impressions (Is your customer getting what they want?)
- Branding (Consistency of brand through language, layout, font use and graphics)
- Heuristics (success of user tasks, site efficiency, simplicity and error handling)
- Competition (Competitive Analysis)
- Search Engine positioning (How are you ranked and what can you do to increase positioning—see recommended programs for custom audits)
Information Architecture
Information Architecture refers to the site structure, also referred to as navigation, content structure or sitemap. Architecture is a better word because it stresses the need for planning and mapping out the blueprint to your site much like building a house. At this stage Performance UI will create a new site structure based on findings from the Assessment stage.
Documentation
Documentation includes all information defined in the previous stages and outlines next steps and recommendations to redesigning your site for best performance.
Please call 707-849-0588 or email jamie@performanceui.com for questions.
