Getting paid to criticize existing products is one of my favorite things. Over time, I’ve noticed that my notes fall under three main categories:
- Heuristics — are best practices being followed by default?
- Are the business’ goals clear?
- How can we delight the user?
Examples of each are as follows:
Heuristics / Best Practices:
- Is there a footer at the end of a website?
- Text and images — are they easy to read and understand on any device they’re rendered on? Are they in the location they’re intended to be in?
- Shopping cart placement — most buyers know to look for this in the upper right corner
Clarity of business goals:
- Each page has ONE MAIN CALL TO ACTION and it is easy to find, easy to read, easy to click on from any device.
- The viewer is ready to click on this call to action now — a.k.a. they have enough information to make the decision, and they are the correct persona.
Delighting the user:
- Shortcuts for actions that a user will do frequently. Eg. Saving their recently used search filters for reuse later; a star icon that filters search results for only favorited items;
- Animations that keep the screen clean, but offer just enough information that a user feels safe and catered to on a personal level
- Remembering things that typically stay the same for a user (eg. keeping a user signed in), while allowing frequent changes for things that will evolve (eg. search parameters)
I hope this helps. Go be (productively) critical.