What it is
An experienced UX practitioner walks your website as a target user, recording every friction point, ambiguity, and missed opportunity. We map findings to Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics (the de-facto standard for UX evaluation since 1994), score severity, and prioritise the fixes likeliest to move your conversion rate.
It's the cheapest and fastest UX intervention available, and on most Irish small-business websites it surfaces the bulk of the conversion-killing issues before any user testing happens.
What you get
- 30-50 prioritised findings. Each tagged with the heuristic it violates (e.g. "H1 — Visibility of system status: form submission gives no confirmation"; "H4 — Consistency: navigation differs across templates").
- Severity scoring from 0 (cosmetic) to 4 (catastrophic), per Nielsen's standard severity scale.
- Before/after annotated screenshots showing each finding with a recommended fix.
- Recommended fix sequence — what to do first if budget is constrained, what to defer, what to scope into a redesign.
- Live walkthrough session — 60 minutes with your team to talk through findings.
When to commission this
- You suspect your conversion rate is below where it should be but aren't sure why.
- You're scoping a redesign and want a defensible list of must-fix issues to inform the brief.
- You've inherited a website from a previous agency and want a candid third-party read on its quality.
- A specific funnel (signup, checkout, contact form) is dropping users and you don't yet have analytics depth to diagnose.
When NOT to commission this
- You already have rich analytics + session recordings showing exactly where users drop off — you may need conversion-rate optimisation instead.
- You suspect the issues are about audience misfit or messaging rather than UX — you may need user research first.
- You're under regulatory pressure for accessibility — a heuristic audit covers some accessibility issues but isn't a substitute for a dedicated WCAG 2.1 AA audit.
How it pairs with usability testing
Heuristic audit (expert-led, fast, cheap) and usability testing (real-user-led, slower, more expensive) surface different things. Heuristic audit catches all the "I know that's wrong" issues. Usability testing catches the "wait — they don't understand this at all?" surprises that even an experienced UX practitioner doesn't predict. Pairing both is more powerful than doing either alone — but heuristic audit always goes first because it cleans up the obvious failures so usability testing focuses on the genuinely uncertain.
Engagement shape
Typically 2 weeks. Audit week 1, draft findings end of week 1, review and walkthrough week 2.
What happens after
Most clients take the findings and remediate internally with their existing developer. Where the issues require redesign-level work, our sister studio digitaldesign.ie picks up implementation. Some clients combine the heuristic audit with usability testing (next service) for a more complete picture before commissioning a rebuild.
Read next
- Heuristic audit vs usability testing: which one first?
- Eight UX patterns that quietly kill conversion
- Usability testing service
Ready to scope it?
Free 30-minute brief call. No pitch deck. We tell you whether the project's a fit, which service shape suits, and a price band — within one working day.