As designers it is not often that we create assets completely from scratch. At the beginning of a project or when we join a new team, we might need to figure out what assets are already available, ask ourselves if they are up to date and check what is being used throughout the brand. A design audit is a great way to  answer these questions.

When conducting an audit, ask yourself how your work fits into the bigger picture. Even though it might be designed in a silo, it won’t be used in a silo.

During a design audit, focus on assets or elements with a low rating but high impact potential. This will help you decide what to work on.

Your audit might be complete, what next? Plan out what steps need to be taken now that you know which areas need your attention. Figure out the level of effort and impact involved in each project, create a proposal on how you might tackle them. As you are auditing, look for ways to group problems together.

Use the experience you have built up over your career to critique things during an audit. Take your knowledge of the brand, target audience and assets and rank each element you come across. Use this as a hypothesis and then go look at the research. A badly designed asset might convert well but remember consistency is what you are striving for in a design audit.

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01.10 – Check in

06.00 – Conducting a design audit

10.46 – Prioritising changes

17.50 – Using, or not using, data

25.04 – Our recommendations