UX Planning Guide

This user experience (UX) planning guide is meant to provide you with questions and best practices to consider when starting a website project. It aims to establish a strong foundation for developing an effective and user-friendly web experience.

Planning
Data and Trends
Brand Standards
Layout and Information Design
Review
 
User Research
Accessibility
Navigation
Content
 

Planning

User Research

  • What are users' overall goals or motivations for visiting your site or pages?
  • Do you know the key tasks visitors want to accomplish (or info they want to find)?
  • How often and in what environment will users interact with our site or pages (context of use)?
  • What common frustrations or sources of confusion do users experience when interacting with this, or similar, content?
  • Have you created user personas to summarize and communicate the user goals, behaviors, interests, questions, and pain points relevant to your project.

Data and Trends

  • Have you analyzed competitor websites for strengths, weaknesses and trends? 
  • Are there current UX design trends relevant to this project?
  • How you collected and reviewed existing data about audiences such as personas or web analytics?
  • Is there benchmark data that can be used to measure outcomes of your work?

Accessibility

UO Brand Standards

  • Is your navigation clearly visible?
  • Does your navigation behave in a predictable manner (following web conventions)?
  • Is your navigation in a consistent location across the user interface?
  • Does the navigation clearly reflect where the user is located within the site hierarchy?
  • Are links organized by priority, the highest priority or most frequently used listed first?
  • Do you links use language familiar to end users?
  • Do link names clearly communicate what users can expect on the linked page?
  • Does link text accurately reflect the name of the page it directs to?
  • Are clickable icons clearly labeled?
  • Will the back button return users to their previous page (no opening pages in a new tab unless users need to compare information).

Layout and Information Design

  • Do pages have a clear information hierarchy that aligns with users' primary tasks and the goals of the site or page?
  • Are you utilizing familiar design patterns to reduce cognitive load?
  • Is there a consistent, logical flow to user interactions?
  • Is content laid out to support scanning (F pattern, Z pattern, etc.)
  • Are similar pages laid out in a consistent manner?
  • Do you yse white space to avoid visual clutter?
  • Are related items located near one another?
  • Is the design responsive to different devices and screen sizes?

Content

  • Have you conducted a content audit to inventory and assess the quality, relevance, and effectiveness of your content?
  • Have you optimized your content for SEO?
  • Did you chunk content to support scanning and quick comprehension?
  • Are keywords front-loaded in paragraphs and lists to support scanning?
  • Are you utilizing headers, sub-headers, bulleted lists, and keywords to support scanning?
  • Do bulleted lists have similar sentence structure (all start with a verb or noun) for easier scanning?
  • Are list items beginning with varying words to help with scanning and differentiation?
  • Are there clear, relevant calls to action?
  • Do similar call to action (CTA) buttons utilize the same label text.
  • Are you avoiding jargon and acronyms that users might not understand?
  • Do images support information seeking and content comprehension (not just decorative)?
  • Is the tone and style consistent across pages?
  • Do you indicate importance and meaning with something besides color alone?

Review

  • Are all links functional and pointing to the correct location?
  • Is the content proofread and free of errors?
  • Does the search working as expected?
  • Are images and media optimized for fast loading?
  • Did you test with real end users to ensure a seamless user experience?
  • Have you set up a method for tracking page performance and user behavior?
  • Do site owners and editors have the training and documentation they need?