git:20260817.5b93a21 to git:20260818.fdb3115

---

name: audit-ux-journeys

description: >

license: MIT

---

# audit-ux-journeys — User-Story, Task-Completion & IA Audit

A site can pass every per-page heuristic and still fail its users: every page individually clean,

yet nobody can *find* the feature, the checkout takes nine steps with two dead ends, and the nav is

organized by the database schema instead of the user's mental model. `audit-ux` judges **pages**;

this skill judges **paths and structure** — whether real user stories can actually be completed,

and whether the information architecture makes the product findable.

The 2026 practitioner consensus is consistent: a UX audit is **not a list of personal opinions** —

it derives from user goals, walks the actual journeys, audits navigation/IA against mental models,

and grounds findings in behavioral evidence (funnels, drop-offs, session behavior) wherever data

exists. When no data exists (pre-launch), the correct method is qualitative walkthroughs, *labeled

as assumptions* — not silence, and not fake certainty.

**Before ANY browser interaction, read `protocol-browser-anti-stall` and apply its rules to every

step.**

> **Report-first.** This skill produces a prioritized audit, then delegates fixes: per-page

> heuristics/microcopy → **`audit-ux`** · single-screen improvements → **`enhance-web-ux`** ·

> forms → **`enhance-web-forms`** · WCAG → **`audit-accessibility`** · speed → **`audit-performance`**

> · feature parity → **`audit-realworld`**. It owns the *cross-page journey and IA* layer and links

> out rather than duplicating.

---

## Core principle — stories over pages, data over taste

- **The unit of audit is a story, not a screen.** Every finding attaches to a user story ("As a

returning customer, I want to reorder in under a minute") and a step in its path.

- **Derive stories from the product, not from imagination.** Routes, nav, CTAs, README, marketing

copy, and existing PRDs define what the product *claims* users can do. Audit those claims.

- **Evidence or hypothesis — say which.** Every finding is tagged `[data]` (analytics/funnel),

`[observed]` (reproduced in the walkthrough), or `[judgment]` (expert assumption to validate).

Presenting `[judgment]` as `[data]` is the cardinal sin of UX audits.

- **Findable beats beautiful.** A feature users can't reach doesn't exist. Depth, labels, and

grouping are audited against the *user's* mental model, not the code's module layout.

- **Prioritize by impact × effort.** A slow checkout matters more than a slow About page. Quick

wins ship first; low-impact issues are deprioritized regardless of how easy they are.

---

## Phase 0 — Derive the stories and scope the trigger

### 0a. Extract user stories from the real product

```bash

# Route inventory (framework-appropriate)

fd -H 'page\.(tsx|jsx|vue|svelte)' app/ src/app/ 2>/dev/null; fd -H . src/routes pages 2>/dev/null -t f

# Navigation + entry points

rg -n -i "<nav|navbar|sidebar|menu|Link.*href|routerLink|to=\"/" -g '*.{tsx,jsx,vue,svelte}' -l

# What the product promises (CTAs, marketing verbs)

rg -n -i "get started|sign up|buy|checkout|create|upload|invite|export|book|order|subscribe" -g '*.{tsx,jsx,vue,svelte,md}'

# Existing story sources — reuse, don't re-invent

fd -H -i 'prd|user-stor|journey|persona' docs/ .cursor/ 2>/dev/null

```

Write 5–10 stories max, each with a **completion signal**:

`As [persona], I want [goal] — done when [observable outcome]`. If `design-prd` output or

`plan-test-coverage` story inventory exists, start from it (same stories, different lens).

### 0b. Scope by audit trigger (sets depth and method)

| Trigger | Method emphasis |

|---|---|

| **KPIs dropping** | Targeted: the affected funnel only; cross-validate with data; check recent changes |

| **Complaints rising** | Thematic: cluster complaints → walk those stories first; treat complaints as hypotheses |

| **Redesign planned** | Comprehensive: all stories + full IA; findings shape the redesign |

| **Pre-launch / no data** | Qualitative walkthroughs of critical flows (signup, onboarding, checkout); **label all findings `[judgment]`** |

| **"Just optimize"** | Holistic roadmap: start at highest-impact stories, surface UX debt |

---

## Phase 1 — Information architecture & navigation audit (structural)

Build the route tree, then audit structure against findability. Detailed commands and pass/fail

signals in [references/checklist.md](references/checklist.md).

| # | Check | Red flag |

|---|---|---|

| IA1 | **Click depth per story target** — core-story destinations reachable in ≤3 clicks from landing | Money pages buried 4+ clicks deep |

| IA2 | **Orphan pages** — every route reachable from some nav/link path | Routes with zero inbound links (exist only by URL) |

| IA3 | **Dead ends** — every page offers a forward action | Pages with no CTA/next step (journey stalls) |

| IA4 | **Label consistency** — nav label ≈ page title ≈ H1; same concept = same word everywhere | "Billing" in nav → "Payments" title → "Invoices" H1 |

| IA5 | **Grouping vs mental model** — nav organized by user tasks/goals | Organized by DB schema or team org chart |

| IA6 | **First-click logic** — for each story, the correct first click from the landing page is the *obvious* one | Correct path requires insider knowledge |

| IA7 | **Wayfinding** — breadcrumbs in hierarchies ≥3 deep; current location highlighted | User can't answer "where am I?" |

| IA8 | **Search & filtering** — present and functional for large content/data sets | 200 items, no search; filter resets on nav |

| IA9 | **URL sanity** — URLs human-readable, hierarchical, shareable | Opaque ids everywhere; state lost on refresh |

Verdicts: `Pass / Fail / N-A` with `file:line` or route evidence. IA6 requires the browser (Phase 2).

## Phase 2 — Story-by-story task walkthroughs (headed browser)

Walk **every** story from Phase 0, entry → completion signal, desktop **and** mobile viewport

(390px — most real friction is mobile). Per story record:

```

STORY: [As … I want … — done when …] Trigger tag: [data|observed|judgment]

Entry: [landing/deep-link] Steps to goal: N clicks / M inputs

Friction log: [each hesitation, mislabel, backtrack, surprise — with screenshot]

Error recovery: [wrong input / back button / refresh mid-flow — data survives? path recoverable?]

Success moment: [is completion confirmed clearly? what happens next?]

Result: COMPLETED / COMPLETED-WITH-FRICTION / BLOCKED (blocker = finding, severity Blocker)

```

Rules: screenshots to `.playwright-mcp/` per the artifact-hygiene rule; forms judged only for

flow-level friction (field-level → `enhance-web-forms`); per-page heuristic violations noticed

along the way are *handed to* `audit-ux`, not re-audited here.

## Phase 3 — Evidence layer (validate or label)

```bash

# What analytics exist?

rg -n -i "gtag|googletagmanager|G-[A-Z0-9]{6,}|posthog|clarity\.ms|hotjar|amplitude|mixpanel|plausible|umami|fathom" -g '*.{ts,tsx,js,jsx,html,vue,svelte}' -l

```

- **Data available** (GA4/PostHog/Clarity/Amplitude/Mixpanel, or Sentry for error hotspots): pull

funnel completion and drop-off per story path, top exit pages, rage-click/dead-click signals.

Upgrade or *refute* walkthrough findings — a "confusing" page with a 95% pass-through rate is

not a Critical finding.

- **No data** (typical pre-launch): every finding stays `[observed]` or `[judgment]`. Say so

explicitly in the report, and recommend minimal instrumentation (page + funnel events on core

stories) as its own roadmap item so the *next* audit has evidence.

## Phase 4 — Prioritized report

```markdown

## UX Journey & IA Audit — [product] — [date]

**Trigger:** [scenario] · **Stories audited:** N · **Evidence:** [analytics available? which]

**Working well:** [1–3 genuine strengths — always present]

### Task-completion matrix

| Story | Result | Steps | Frictions | Blockers | Evidence |

|---|---|---|---|---|---|

| Reorder as returning customer | COMPLETED-WITH-FRICTION | 7 (target ≤4) | 3 | – | [observed] |

| Find pricing from landing | BLOCKED (mobile) | – | – | menu unreachable | [observed] |

### IA verdicts (IA1–IA9)

| Check | Verdict | Evidence |

|---|---|---|

### Findings (each: severity · evidence tag · story · impact×effort quadrant)

| # | Finding | Severity | Evidence | Story/step | Impact | Effort | Fix via |

|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

| 1 | Checkout loses cart on refresh at step 3 | Blocker | observed | buy §5 | High | Med | debug-error → enhance-web-ux |

### Quick wins (high impact · low effort — do first)

### Roadmap (high impact · high effort)

### Deprioritized (low impact — listed, not scheduled)

### Validate next (all [judgment] findings + the instrumentation to settle them)

```

Language discipline: neutral, behavior-grounded observations ("3 of 5 walkthrough runs backtracked

at X"), never accusatory ("this design is bad"). One observation per finding, one paragraph max.

**Forbidden:** presenting `[judgment]` as data; re-auditing per-page heuristics/microcopy that

`audit-ux` owns; inventing personas unmoored from the product; recommending a full redesign when

incremental fixes close the findings; a findings dump with no impact×effort prioritization;

only-negatives reports (name what works); auditing without walking the stories (a route-tree grep

alone is not a journey audit).

---

## Related

- `audit-responsive` — page-level layout/IA at 375 / 768 / 1440 (this skill is cross-page stories)

- `audit-ux` — per-page NN/g heuristics, Laws of UX, microcopy, emotional design (the page lens to this skill's path lens)

- `enhance-web-ux` / `enhance-web-forms` — fix the screens and forms this audit flags

- `audit-uiux-design-system` — visual token/component compliance

- `audit-accessibility` / `audit-performance` — WCAG and speed lenses (delegated)

- `audit-realworld` — full-stack feature parity vs the RealWorld reference

- `plan-test-coverage` — same story inventory, test-coverage lens; share Phase 0 output

- `design-prd` — where stories come from on greenfield; this skill audits them post-build

- `test-playwright` — turn walkthroughs into regression coverage after fixes

- `complete-everything` — close the audited gaps to done with verification