Website Design Audit Checklist: UI, Content, Accessibility, and Performance
A practical website design audit checklist covering UI, UX, content, accessibility, performance, and search. Define the scope and record evidence for each concern.
By Design Audit Team · Updated
What is a website design audit?
A website design audit is a structured review of how a page communicates information and supports its intended task. It can cover UI design, usability, content, accessibility, search, and performance. Design auditing records the current conditions, identifies concerns, and proposes specific improvements. It complements usability testing and measurement of real visits.
How to use this checklist
Record the URL, review date, viewport, page state, and intended task. For each relevant check below, note “reviewed,” “issue found,” “not reviewed,” or “not applicable,” with supporting evidence. A public information page and a checkout need different coverage.
Inspect interaction states in an approved review environment. Do not create real purchases or consequential submissions without authorization. Keep any unreviewed states visible in the handoff.
What to record when a check reveals a concern
Use this record: location and state; observed condition; evidence; affected task; proposed next step; owner; resolution condition. Keep a proposed consequence separate from what was actually observed. The worked pricing-page example linked below shows completed findings and priority reasoning.
Review checklist
- Purpose: the offer, audience, and intended next step are understandable.
- Hierarchy: headings and grouping create a coherent reading order.
- Content: terms, values, and units are consistent where they describe the same thing.
- Decisions: price, commitment, eligibility, and relevant conditions appear before the action.
- Navigation: links describe their destination and reach the intended page.
- Forms: labels and necessary format guidance remain available while typing.
- Feedback: pending, success, and failure states identify what happened.
- Recovery: correcting an error does not unnecessarily discard valid work.
- Responsive layout: content relationships survive stacking, wrapping, and enlarged text.
- Structure: headings, controls, and relationships have meaningful semantics.
- Images: information has appropriate text alternatives.
- Access: contrast, keyboard operation, and visible focus are assessed against relevant requirements.
- Performance: loading, interaction, and stability concerns have appropriate measurements.
- Discovery: public content has descriptive metadata, crawlable links, and the intended indexing configuration.
- Handoff: unresolved findings, exclusions, owners, and follow-up conditions are recorded.