18F
18F - Interface Audit
An Interface Audit is a systematic review of a digital product's visual and interactive elements. This 180-minute exercise catalogs styles, colors, icons, buttons, forms, navigation, and layouts. Teams document inconsistencies, missing patterns, and accessibility issues. The audit builds a foundation for a design system, revealing patterns to standardize or eliminate. Expect a component inventory with screenshots, usage counts, and recommendations. This speeds up design and ensures a consistent user experience.
Duration
3 hours
Group Size
3-6
Category
18F
Difficulty
Easy
Identify website components needing revision for consistency and gap filling. Establish and document a design system for the website.
- Interface audit findings.
- Documented current state.
- Foundation for improvements.
Before you start, ensure access to all interfaces (staging, screenshots, or live). Waiting for credentials kills momentum. Assign a severity rating to each element immediately. Deferring judgment loses context. 'Needs attention' is vague. Use 'Critical inconsistency,' 'Minor deviation,' or 'Acceptable variance.' Teams often audit what they built instead of what users see. Include error states and edge cases. Prioritize findings by frequency x severity. A minor issue on every screen beats a critical issue on one obscure page. Document with screenshots showing the problem and expected behavior. I've seen teams get bogged down in minor details; keep the big picture in mind.
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