Lab 06: UX Audit & Conversion Rate Optimization Plan¶

Overview¶

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action. A good UX audit identifies friction — every unnecessary click, confusing label, and slow page that bleeds revenue. In this lab you will conduct a structured heuristic evaluation of a real e-commerce site, score it against industry UX standards, prioritize issues by impact, and produce a professional CRO plan.

Part A — Choose Your Audit Target (5 pts)¶

Select a real, publicly accessible e-commerce site that sells physical products. Good candidates: - A brand you personally use - A local or regional retailer - A niche marketplace (not Amazon — too polished)

Document in ux_audit.md: - Site URL - Product category - Estimated audience (B2C, demographics) - Your rationale for choosing this site

Part B — Heuristic Evaluation (30 pts)¶

Use Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics adapted for e-commerce. Rate each heuristic 1–5 (1=Severe violation, 5=Excellent) on the site's product listing page, product detail page, and checkout flow.

For each heuristic, provide: - Score (1–5) - Specific example from the site (quote button text, describe layout) - Screenshot reference (take screenshots and label them)

Severity scale: - 45–50: Excellent — minor polish needed - 35–44: Good — a few friction points - 25–34: Fair — meaningful revenue leakage - Below 25: Poor — urgent redesign needed

Part C — Friction Point Inventory (25 pts)¶

Go through the complete purchase flow on your chosen site: search → category → product → cart → checkout → confirmation. For each step, list every friction point you encounter.

## Friction Point Inventory

### Product Search
- [ ] Search autocomplete: [present/absent/broken]
- [ ] Filter options: [sufficient/insufficient/confusing]
- [ ] Results relevance: [relevant/irrelevant]
- Friction found: ...

### Product Listing Page
- [ ] Images: [quality, zoom capability]
- [ ] Pricing: [clear/confusing/hidden fees]
- [ ] Social proof: [reviews visible/absent]
- Friction found: ...

### Product Detail Page
- [ ] CTA prominence: [clear/buried/confusing]
- [ ] Shipping info: [clear/vague/absent]
- [ ] Size/variant selection: [easy/confusing]
- [ ] Trust signals: [present/absent]
- Friction found: ...

### Shopping Cart
- [ ] Cart visibility: [persistent/hidden]
- [ ] Edit capability: [easy/difficult]
- [ ] Upsell/cross-sell: [helpful/aggressive/absent]
- Friction found: ...

### Checkout
- [ ] Guest checkout: [available/forced registration]
- [ ] Form fields: [minimal/excessive]
- [ ] Progress indicator: [present/absent]
- [ ] Payment options: [sufficient/limited]
- [ ] Security signals: [present/absent]
- Friction found: ...

Rank your top 5 friction points by estimated revenue impact (use the framework: Impact = Traffic Volume × Abandonment Rate × AOV × Potential Lift).

Part D — CRO Prioritization Plan (30 pts)¶

Create cro_plan.md — a professional CRO roadmap.

1. ICE Scoring For each of your top 5 friction points, score using the ICE framework: - Impact (1–10): How much will fixing this improve conversion? - Confidence (1–10): How confident are you this change will work? - Ease (1–10): How easy is it to implement? - ICE Score = (Impact + Confidence + Ease) / 3

2. Test Plans For the top 2 ICE-scored issues, write a mini A/B test plan (hypothesis, variant description, success metric, sample size estimate).

3. Quick Wins vs Strategic Changes Categorize all 5 fixes: - Quick wins (< 1 week dev): List with expected lift % - Strategic changes (1–4 weeks): List with expected lift % and tradeoffs - Long-term investment (1+ month): List with rationale

4. Revenue Impact Estimate Assume the site has 100,000 monthly sessions, 2.0% CVR, and $65 AOV. Calculate the projected monthly revenue increase if you fix all 5 issues and achieve your expected lifts.

Baseline: 100,000 × 2.0% × $65 = $130,000/month

After fix 1 (CVR +0.3%): ...
After fix 2 (CVR +0.2%): ...
...
Total projected monthly revenue: $___
Annual uplift: $___

5. Mobile-Specific Recommendations From Part B and your own mobile visit to the site, list 3 mobile-specific UX improvements not covered above.

Part E — SEO Quick Audit (10 pts)¶

Use Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) to audit your site's product detail page.

Record the scores: | Metric | Mobile | Desktop | |--------|--------|---------| | Performance | /100 | /100 | | Accessibility | /100 | /100 | | Best Practices | /100 | /100 | | SEO | /100 | /100 | | Largest Contentful Paint | s | s | | Total Blocking Time | ms | ms | | Cumulative Layout Shift | | |

In cro_plan.md, answer: 1. What is the biggest Core Web Vitals issue? 2. What revenue impact does a 1-second page load improvement have? (Use the Google formula: 1s faster = +2% conversion rate) 3. What is the single highest-priority technical fix?

Submission Checklist¶

• [ ] ux_audit.md — Parts A, B, C complete with screenshot references
• [ ] cro_plan.md — Parts D, E complete with ICE scores and revenue projections
• [ ] Annotated screenshots (labeled with friction points found)
• [ ] PageSpeed Insights screenshot

Grading¶