UI/UX Design Audit Checklist: Find & Fix Friction in Your App

Every swipe, scroll, or second of hesitation on your app tells a story—and sometimes, it’s not the one you intended. Maybe a user lingers too long on a button, unsure of what it does. Or they give up halfway through a process because something just feels off. These micro-moments of friction might be invisible, but they add up fast—eroding trust, lowering conversions, and pushing users away.

That’s why UI/UX design audits aren’t just helpful—they’re essential.

At Jhavtech Studios, we’ve seen firsthand that intuitive, seamless apps aren’t accidents. They’re built on insight, testing, and an obsessive focus on the user. Our process combines creative thinking, accessibility standards, and behavior-driven analytics. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the checklist we use to uncover friction and build better experiences—one thoughtful detail at a time.

Start With Heuristic Evaluation: The Foundation of Usability

A heuristic evaluation is often where we start a UI/UX design audit. It’s a structured, manual review that compares your interface against established usability principles—like visibility of system status, user control, error prevention, and consistency.

That might sound technical, but the questions we’re really asking are:

• Can users easily predict what will happen when they tap this?
• Can they recover quickly from mistakes?
• Is the interface consistent throughout the journey?

At Jhavtech, we approach this from two angles: as a first-time user and a seasoned power user. This helps us catch those sneaky usability flaws—things that users won’t always complain about, but that quietly damage their experience. One recent case? During a UI/UX design audit for a mental health app, we discovered that a key action button—used to book therapy sessions—behaved inconsistently across screens, causing confusion and hesitation. This subtle friction was driving up user drop-off by 11%. After standardizing the button’s behavior and clarifying its label, completion rates for that flow improved by over 20% within just two weeks.

Apply Gestalt Principles: How Users Really “See” Your App

When people look at your app, they don’t scan it piece by piece—they perceive it as a whole. That’s where Gestalt psychology comes into play. These principles help us understand how users visually group elements, form expectations, and navigate hierarchy.

We ask:

• Do related items sit close together (proximity)?
• Is there enough contrast for key information to stand out (figure-ground)?
• Is the overall flow easy to scan and follow?

In one of our healthcare projects, we noticed users were abandoning the intake form midway—a critical step for patient onboarding. By applying Gestalt principles, we grouped related fields like personal info and medical history into clear sections with visual separators and intuitive headings. This small layout change reduced cognitive load and improved form completion rates, ultimately cutting user drop-offs by 17%. In UI/UX design, visual clarity isn’t just cosmetic—it’s what keeps users moving forward.

Test for Accessibility: Design That Includes Everyone

A good audit doesn’t just evaluate design for the average user—it ensures everyone can navigate and benefit from the experience.

We test for:

• Color contrast and readability
• Keyboard navigation
• Screen reader compatibility
• Font legibility
• Focus indicators

Following WCAG 2.2 guidelines, our audits prioritize inclusivity—not just for compliance, but because it leads to better design for all. In a recent project with an ed-tech platform, boosting accessibility features—like improving tab navigation and increasing contrast—led to a 22% increase in session duration. Better accessibility isn’t extra work. It’s just smart UI/UX design.

Evaluate Information Architecture: How Easily Can Users Navigate?

Imagine walking into a library where books are randomly shelved. Even the best content becomes useless if people can’t find what they need.

That’s what poor information architecture (IA) feels like in an app.

This part of our UI/UX design audit looks at:

• How content is grouped
• Whether navigation labels are clear
• How users find their way from point A to B

We use methods like tree testing and card sorting to uncover how users naturally categorize and navigate content, ensuring that labels and structures align with user expectations. In one of our education sector projects, analytics showed high bounce rates on a key feature that was buried under a vague menu label—“Resources.” After testing alternatives with real users, we renamed it to “Learning Tools,” which clearly reflected its purpose. That small but targeted change led to a 30% improvement in user flow and a noticeable increase in daily active users.

IA is the skeleton of your app. Without a solid structure, even the most beautiful interface falls apart.

Gather Behavioral Data With Maze: Let the Users Show You

A major part of any successful UI/UX design audit? Watching what users actually do, not just what they say.

That’s where tools like Maze come in.

Maze allows us to:

• Track click paths
• Generate heatmaps
• Run task-based usability tests
• Collect quantitative feedback

In one client project, Maze revealed that users consistently overlooked a key feature. Despite its prominent placement, it didn’t match user expectations. After repositioning the feature based on Maze heatmaps, engagement doubled in two weeks.

Tools like Maze turn guesswork into confidence. They help product teams make decisions grounded in real user behavior, not assumptions.

Connect the Dots: Friction Mapping and Prioritization

Once we’ve gathered all the findings, it’s time to translate them into an actionable plan.

Our friction map visualizes the user journey and highlights:

• Where users struggle
• What causes hesitation or errors
• Which issues have the biggest impact on UX

We then use an effort vs. impact matrix to help you prioritize. This avoids the classic audit trap—getting stuck with a giant list of low-priority fixes. Instead, you walk away with a focused roadmap that balances quick wins with long-term improvements.

At Jhavtech Studios, we’ve seen this approach streamline decision-making for clients in sectors ranging from local government to startups. It’s not about fixing everything—it’s about fixing what matters most.

Key Takeaways

Conducting a proper UI/UX design audit is one of the most effective ways to enhance your app—not just visually, but strategically. Here’s what really makes the difference:

✅ Heuristic evaluation helps uncover usability flaws that users won’t always report.
✅ Gestalt principles make your app easier to scan and navigate at a glance.
✅ Accessibility testing ensures inclusivity and boosts engagement across audiences.
✅ Information architecture helps users understand where they are and where to go next.
✅ Maze and other testing tools validate decisions with real user behavior.
✅ Friction mapping turns findings into focused, actionable changes.

Great UI/UX design isn’t about flashy visuals or trendy interfaces. It’s about reducing effort, building trust, and making every user interaction feel intentional and rewarding.

Why Jhavtech Studios?

At Jhavtech Studios, we don’t believe in generic templates. Every app we audit gets a tailored approach—because no two products (or user bases) are the same. Whether we're redesigning a mobile experience for local councils or fine-tuning accessibility for a national education platform, our work is grounded in research, empathy, and results.

Check out our portfolio to see how we’ve helped clients streamline experiences, boost engagement, and remove friction from every click.

If you're building or maintaining an app in 2025, don't jump straight into a redesign. Start with an audit. Understand where your users struggle—and why. Only then can you design an experience that truly works.

Ready to uncover hidden friction in your app? Let’s talk about a custom UI/UX design audit that actually moves the needle.