Doing a Design Audit
By doing regular design audits, you can make sure everything looks the same and sends the same message.
Regular design audits can have a big impact on your company’s success. Design is important for how your company looks and what it’s trying to say. This helps customers recognize and trust your company. It’s also important to keep things looking new and up-to-date so your company stays current in the market.
Take some time to review your design materials regularly and update them as needed to make sure your brand looks strong and consistent.
What's a Design Audit?
Design audit is assessing a company’s existing design elements for effectiveness and efficiency. Visual elements, layout, and user experience are analyzed. The goal is to identify problems, inconsistencies and usability issues that do not meet objectives.
Findings can be used to improve the company’s design strategy resulting in a more cohesive and impactful visual identity. It is ideal for companies refreshing their brand or launching a new product or service. The audit can be done in-house or by hiring an external design consultant.
Benefits of a Design Sysem Audit
Holistic view
Optimize your brand with expert analysis that highlights strong points and provides actionable steps for improvement, streamlining processes and enhancing impact.
Better UX
Make sure your digital offerings meet customer needs for higher engagement and platform performance. This tool can help you provide the best experience and stay ahead of competition.
Consistency
Consistent branding is key to building consumer loyalty and recognition. A uniform visual and text plan fosters professionalism and quality perceptions, leading to long-term success.
Perspective*
An impartial third-party audit offers an objective evaluation that remains uninfluenced by internal factors or biases.
Design Audit Key Components
Accessibility
Evaluate the design system’s adherence to accessibility standards, such as color contrast, keyboard navigation, and proper semantic markup. Ensure that the design system caters to users with disabilities and meets accessibility guidelines.
Usability
Assess the usability of the design system by evaluating its clarity, intuitiveness, and ease of use. Consider the effectiveness of components, patterns, and guidelines in supporting user tasks and interactions.
Performance
Analyze the performance of the design system, including page load times, rendering speed, and overall responsiveness. Optimize the system for efficient performance to enhance user experience.
Compatibility
Evaluate how well the design system integrates with existing development tools, frameworks, and platforms. Check for compatibility with different browsers, devices, and screen sizes to ensure consistent experiences across various environments.
Flexibility
Evaluate the flexibility of the design system to accommodate various design needs, use cases, and content types. Determine if the system provides enough options for customization and supports different layouts and contexts.
Governance
Assess how the design system is maintained and governed. Consider factors such as version control, update processes, and collaboration mechanisms to ensure the system remains up to date and evolves with changing needs.
Documentation
Examine the comprehensiveness and clarity of the design system’s documentation. Evaluate if it provides clear guidelines, usage examples, code snippets, and explanations of design principles to support designers and developers.
Consistency
Review the consistency of design elements and patterns across different components and screens. Ensure that the design system maintains visual and interaction consistency to create a unified user experience.
Design Audit Tools and Workflow
By following this guide, you can ensure that your running design system is well-maintained, consistent, accessible, and optimized for performance, providing a smooth and efficient user experience across different platforms and devices.
1. Go through your products hunting down visual inconcistencies.
- Screenshot/record and segment everything you see – good and bad.
- Draw special attention on critical use flows and processes.
- Prioritize (ignore small detai)
2. Document everything in a report outlining the strong points, problems and critical areas.
Here’s what you need to put on the table for consideration. Draw attention to channels, funnels, and multidomain products.
Design System Freebies
- Design Consistency: Assess the consistency of design elements, such as colors, typography, spacing, and iconography, across the design system components.
- Component Library: Evaluate the organization and structure of the component library, ensuring that it is intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Accessibility Compliance: Verify that the design system adheres to accessibility guidelines and provides inclusive experiences for users with disabilities.
- Documentation Quality: Evaluate the clarity, comprehensiveness, and usability of the design system documentation, including guidelines, usage examples, and code snippets.
- Component Reusability: Assess the reusability of components across different projects and platforms, ensuring they can be easily adapted and scaled as needed.
- Version Control: Check if the design system has a robust version control system in place to manage updates, revisions, and backward compatibility.
- Developer Experience: Evaluate the ease of implementation and developer experience when using the design system components, including the availability of code snippets, documentation, and support.
- User Testing and Feedback: Gather feedback from users and stakeholders to understand their experiences and identify areas for improvement within the design system.
- Design System Governance: Assess the governance and ownership structure of the design system, including roles, responsibilities, and processes for maintaining and evolving the system over time.
- Alignment with Business Goals: Evaluate how well the design system aligns with the overall business goals, brand identity, and strategic objectives of the organization.
Website Components:
- Navigation menus
- Buttons and interactive elements
- Forms and input fields
- Typography styles
- Grid layouts
- Image and media styles
Social Media Publication:
- Branding consistency across social media platforms
- Templates for social media graphics and posts
- Guidelines for visual elements (logos, icons, colors)
- Typography and text styles for social media content
- Consistent use of brand voice and tone
Mobile App Interfaces:
- UI components (buttons, icons, tabs, cards)
- App navigation and menu structure
- Consistent layout and grid system
- Typography and text styles
- Interactive animations and transitions
Email Templates:
- Branding and logo placement
- Header and footer design
- Typography and text styles
- Call-to-action buttons
- Consistent formatting across devices and email clients
Print Collateral:
- Branding and logo usage
- Typography styles and hierarchy
- Color palette and usage
- Layout templates for brochures, flyers, and posters
- Consistent use of imagery and graphics
Iconography:
- Consistent visual style and design principles for icons
- Icon library and categories
- Guidelines for icon usage and placement
- Icon design specifications and variations for different contexts
Color Palette:
- Primary and secondary brand colors
- Color variations for different UI states (e.g., hover, active)
- Color contrast ratios for accessibility compliance
- Guidelines for color usage and combinations
Typography System:
- Primary and secondary typefaces
- Heading styles and hierarchy
- Body text styles and line spacing
- Guidelines for font sizes and weights
- Typography usage for different contexts (e.g., web, print)
Illustrations and Graphics:
- Consistent style and visual language for illustrations
- Guidelines for illustration usage and placement
- Design elements and motifs specific to the brand
- Specifications for file formats and resolutions
Design Guidelines and Documentation:
- General design principles and philosophy
- Usage guidelines for different design elements
- Code snippets and implementation instructions
- Best practices and recommendations for designers and developers
- Examples and case studies illustrating successful implementation
- Typography styles
- Color palette
- Logo and branding guidelines
- Buttons
- Forms and input fields
- Checkboxes
- Radio buttons
- Switches and toggles
- Dropdown menus
- Navigation menus
- Cards
- Modals
- Alerts and notifications
- Tabs
- Accordion and collapsible sections
- Pagination
- Progress bars
- Sliders
- Carousels
- Icons
- Badges
- Avatars and profile pictures
- Typography headings (H1-H6)
- Paragraph styles
- Blockquotes
- Lists (ordered, unordered)
- Tables
- Grid system
- Image styles and guidelines
- Video and multimedia styles
- Tooltips
- Breadcrumbs
- Date and time pickers
- Calendars
- Steppers
- Loading spinners
- Search bars
- Filters
- Tags and labels
- Progress indicators
- Social sharing buttons
- Footer design and components
- Error states and messaging
- Empty states (e.g., empty cart, no search results)
- Onboarding and user education components
- Login and registration forms
- Password strength indicators
- Pricing tables
- Testimonials and customer reviews components
- Style guides and documentation templates
- Primary navigation
- Secondary navigations
- Footer navigation
- Hero section
- Call to action (CTA) section
- Feature section
- Services section
- About Us section
- Team section
- Testimonial section
- FAQ section
- Pricing section
- Contact section
- Blog section
- Portfolio section
- Test-drive/Demo section
- Newsletter signup section
- Social media section
- Stats/counter section
- Process/steps section
- Video section
- Case study section
- Clients/partners section
- Awards and Recognition section
- Testimonial carousel section
- Client/partner logos section
- Pricing table section
- Comparison table section
- Resources/download section
- Events section
- Callout section
- Team member spotlight section
- Customer success stories section
- FAQ accordion section
- Latest news/updates section
- Partnerships section
- Trust and security section
- Blog post list section
- Testimonial grid section
- Career/job openings section
- Featured products section
- Privacy policy/terms of service section
- Customer support/help desk section
- Product roadmap section
- Image gallery section
- Onboarding/Get started section
- Resource library section
- Community/forum section
- Content teaser section
3. Design System QA Checklist.
Here’s what you need to put on the table for consideration. Draw attention to channels, funnels, and multidomain products.
Design Consistency:
- Are design elements consistent across all components and screens?
- Do colors, typography, spacing, and styles adhere to the design system guidelines?
Accessibility:
- Is the design system accessible to users with diverse abilities?
- Have accessibility guidelines (WCAG) been followed for color contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility?
Browser and Device Compatibility:
- Has the design system been tested on major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc.) and devices (desktop, mobile, tablet)?
- Are there any inconsistencies or issues with rendering across different browsers and devices?
Component Reusability:
- Are components designed to be reusable across different projects and platforms?
- Do components scale and adapt well to various contexts and use cases?
Documentation Accuracy:
- Is the design system documentation up to date and accurate?
- Are there any inconsistencies or discrepancies between the documentation and the actual implementation?
Performance Optimization:
- Has the design system been optimized for performance?
- Are there any performance bottlenecks or slow-loading components?
Code Quality:
- Is the codebase clean, well-organized, and maintainable?
- Are there any coding conventions or best practices that need to be enforced?
Version Control and Updates:
- Is there a proper version control system in place to manage updates and revisions?
- Are updates being communicated and implemented effectively?
User Feedback and Testing:
- Have users provided feedback on the design system? If so, have their concerns and suggestions been addressed?
- Has user testing been conducted to validate the usability and effectiveness of the design system components?
Collaboration and Governance:
- Are there clear processes and roles for maintaining and evolving the design system?
- Is there effective collaboration between designers, developers, and stakeholders?
Integration with Development Tools:
- Does the design system integrate well with popular development tools, frameworks, and libraries?
- Are there any issues or conflicts when implementing the design system in various development environments?
Continuous Improvement:
- Is there a plan for continuous improvement of the design system based on user feedback and evolving design needs?
- Are there mechanisms in place for gathering and incorporating feedback from the design system users.