Content Assessment

[pbest]

Use criteria to assess a current website in order to improve a site in areas that don’t have explicit data points and create actionable recommendations for optimization based on current observations

Why?

While analytics are optimal for making concrete arguments, some aspects of what create a complete website user experience cannot rely on data, and thus using predetermined heuristic criteria is helpful in using subjective judgement to guide a site in a better direction.

Time Required

Smaller Site (5 page types) - 10 hours
Medium Site (8-10 page types) - 15 hours
Large Site (10+ page types) - 20+ hours

A page type is a repeated template that will apply to multiple pages (URLs) within a site. For example, a company that has a separate page for each member of their leadership team will share one page type that is filled in with each person's image and/or biography). Often times, page types are defined by their corresponding wireframe.

How to do it

1. Define search parameters and criteria based on time allotted and highest priorities
2. Assess site pages within defined parameters based on the heuristic criteria
3. Form observations and recommendations based on assessment
4. Create additional recommendations (site features, etc.) that would improve user experience

Pro-tips

1. Most recommendations should be actionable - though there is room to have more aspirational ideas, but convey these would be later phase implementations
2. Narrow the scope as much as possible - many websites have various page “types” - these could be general CMS, added value attachments, “About” section pages, outline doing a small sample of each page type to save time without sacrificing end value
3. Use existing site examples (screenshots)

Examples

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/439788/Content_Offers/UX_Design/User_Experience_Audit_-_Sample.pdf?t=1484066350369

Links
https://usabilitygeek.com/ux-audit-beginners-guide/