UX Audit Checklist: 47 Things to Check Before Your Next Launch

Most products ship with UX problems the team never noticed — not because they didn't care, but because there was no systematic process for catching them. This checklist fixes that.

Work through all 47 items before your next launch. You won't need a designer or a consultant. You just need honest eyes and about two hours.

Navigation (8 checks)

Good navigation is invisible. Bad navigation is the first thing users notice.

1. Can a new visitor find the main feature in under 10 seconds? Test this with someone who has never seen your product.
2. Is the primary CTA visible above the fold on desktop? If a user has to scroll to find what to do next, you're losing them.
3. Is the primary CTA visible above the fold on mobile? Mobile is a separate test. Many products fail this one specifically.
4. Does your nav have more than 7 items? If yes, consider grouping. Cognitive load rises sharply past 7 choices.
5. Are active states clearly visible on nav links? Users should always know where they are.
6. Does the back button work as expected throughout your flow? A common killer for single-page apps.
7. Are breadcrumbs present on pages deeper than 2 levels? Especially important for dashboards and settings pages.
8. Is the logo clickable and does it return to home? Users expect this. If it doesn't, it breaks trust.

Visual Hierarchy (7 checks)

Your page should guide the eye. Most pages fight the eye.

1. Is there a single dominant heading on each page? If everything is big, nothing is big.
2. Does font size actually vary by importance? H1 > H2 > body should be visually obvious at a glance.
3. Is there enough whitespace between sections? Compressed pages feel overwhelming. Give content room to breathe.
4. Does your hero image or graphic support the headline — or compete with it? Decorative visuals that distract from the CTA are conversion killers.
5. Is your colour palette consistent across the product? Check buttons, links, and alerts specifically.
6. Can a user identify what your product does in 5 seconds without reading? Show your product to a stranger. Ask them to explain it back to you.
7. Is the most important information in the top 400 pixels of each page? This is the viewport most users never scroll past on a first visit.

Accessibility (8 checks)

Accessibility is not a nice-to-have. It affects real users and increasingly affects legal compliance.

1. Do all images have meaningful alt text? "image.png" doesn't count. Neither does leaving it blank.
2. Is your colour contrast ratio at least 4.5:1 for body text? Use a free tool like WebAIM's contrast checker.
3. Can a user complete the entire primary flow using only a keyboard? Tab through it right now. Where does it break?
4. Are form fields labelled — not just placeholder text? Placeholders disappear when the user starts typing. Labels don't.
5. Do error messages explain what went wrong and how to fix it? "Invalid input" tells the user nothing. "Password must be at least 8 characters" is useful.
6. Are interactive elements (buttons, links) at least 44x44px on mobile? Anything smaller is genuinely hard to tap accurately.
7. Does your site work with a screen reader? Test with VoiceOver (Mac/iOS) or NVDA (Windows). The results are often sobering.
8. Is the language attribute set correctly on the HTML element? The lang attribute on your html tag — missing this breaks screen reader pronunciation.

Conversion Optimisation (8 checks)

Every friction point costs you customers. Most friction points are invisible until you look for them.

1. Does your headline focus on the outcome, not the feature? "Get a UX audit in 4 minutes" beats "AI-powered UX analysis tool".
2. Is there social proof above the fold? Testimonials, logos, user counts, or press mentions — any of these reduce signup anxiety.
3. How many fields are in your signup form? Every field you remove increases completion rate. Start with the minimum.
4. Is the primary CTA copy specific? "Start free audit" beats "Get started" beats "Submit".
5. Do you have a clear value proposition on the pricing page? Not just features — what does the user actually get?
6. Are there trust signals near the payment or signup button? "No credit card required", "Cancel anytime", SSL badge.
7. Does your onboarding flow show progress? A progress bar or step indicator reduces abandonment significantly.
8. Is there a live chat or easy support option visible during checkout? Users who hit a question during signup and can't get an answer will leave.

Mobile UX (6 checks)

Over half of your traffic is probably mobile. Treat it as the primary experience, not an afterthought.

1. Does the page load in under 3 seconds on a 4G connection? Use Google PageSpeed Insights to test this.
2. Is text readable without pinching to zoom? Minimum 16px for body copy on mobile.
3. Are tap targets (buttons, links) large enough and spaced apart? Thin links close together are unusable on a phone screen.
4. Does horizontal scrolling happen anywhere on mobile? It should never happen unintentionally.
5. Is your mobile navigation usable with one thumb? The bottom half of the screen is the easiest to reach. Main actions should live there.
6. Does your email/number input trigger the right keyboard? Using the correct input type attributes triggers the correct mobile keyboards. Many forms miss this.

Content Clarity (5 checks)

Clear copy converts better than clever copy, every time.

1. Can a non-technical person understand your homepage in one read? Ask a family member. Their confusion is your conversion problem.
2. Is your value proposition in the first sentence of your hero? Don't bury the lead.
3. Are your feature names self-explanatory? If you have to explain what "Analytics Hub" does, rename it.
4. Do you have a FAQ that answers the actual objections buyers have? Not "How do I reset my password" — the real questions: "Is this worth the money? How long does it take?"
5. Is pricing transparent and easy to find? Hidden pricing is a trust issue. People assume the worst when they can't see a number.

Performance (5 checks)

Slow products feel broken. Users equate speed with quality.

1. Is your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds? This is Google's key performance metric. Check it in PageSpeed Insights.
2. Is your Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) score below 0.1? Layout shift — where elements jump around while loading — is one of the most frustrating UX issues.
3. Are images properly compressed and in modern formats (WebP, AVIF)? A 2MB PNG background image will cost you users on mobile.
4. Are web fonts loading without a flash of unstyled text (FOUT)? Font display issues make a product look unpolished even if everything else is right.
5. Does your product handle slow or failed network connections gracefully? What does the user see if an API call fails? "Something went wrong" with no further guidance is not good enough.

How to Use This Checklist

Work through it section by section. Mark each item as Pass, Fail, or Not Applicable. For every Fail, note the specific page or flow where it happens.

At the end, you'll have a prioritised list of real issues, not vague impressions.

If you want a faster way to do this, UXAuditPro runs through a systematic AI audit across all seven dimensions above — in about 4 minutes. The first audit is free, no credit card required.

The checklist above is what a good manual review covers. The automated audit covers the same ground and surfaces findings your eyes might miss.

Related reading: UX Audit vs Lighthouse — what's the difference?

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