About
This template is a UX scorecard and benchmarking tool for evaluating website usability. It translates Jakob Nielsen’s usability principles into a guided, non-technical process, with practical questions that help teams spot strengths, friction points, and opportunities for improvement. Use it for internal evaluation, tracking progress over time, or as a shared activity with partners to align on UX priorities.
Goals & Outcomes
Goals
Give your team a structured way to evaluate usability across your website.
Help both designers and non-designers speak a common language about UX.
Reveal both strengths and usability gaps in websites
Outcomes
By completing this evaluation, you will:
Gain a clear view of your website’s current UX health.
Understand how your experience aligns (or misaligns) with best practices.
See where users are most likely to face frustration or barriers.
Establish a benchmark score for measuring progress in future audits.
How to Use This Template
1. Choose Your Path
Work through all 10 heuristics in order or focus on the ones most relevant to your goals.
2. Work in Sessions
Don’t rush. Each heuristic is self-contained, so you can complete them one at a time.
3. Review with Your Website Open
Navigate real pages and flows while answering questions. Capture notes or screenshots to ground your observations.
4. Reflect Individually First
Have participants review heuristics on their own before group scoring to avoid groupthink and gather diverse input.
5. Compare Observations as a Team
Share insights together. Look for both overlaps (patterns) and differences (unique perspectives).
6. Score Heuristics Collaboratively
Discuss and assign scores as a group. Collaborative scoring builds alignment and makes results representative.
7. Calculate Benchmark Score
Add up scores from all heuristics to get a total benchmark. Use it as a reference for future audits.
