skills/audit/references/design-audit-framework.md

# Design Audit Framework

Use this structure for `audit`.

Use `audit` for systematic assessment across a broader experience, not for feedback on a single artifact.

## Audit modes

- `UX audit`
- `Accessibility audit`
- `Combined audit`

## UX audit lenses

- Task entry and discoverability
- Information architecture
- Interaction flow and friction
- Hierarchy and clarity
- Trust and reassurance
- Default states and empty states
- Copy and calls to action
- Consistency across the experience

## Accessibility audit lenses

- Perceivable content and contrast risks
- Semantic structure and reading order
- Keyboard access and focus behavior
- Target size and interaction affordances
- Labels, instructions, and error recovery
- Motion, timing, and state change communication
- Responsive reflow and zoom resilience
- Assistive-technology clarity and robustness

## UX audit output structure

1. `Audit scope`
2. `User goal`
3. `Strengths`
4. `Notable risks`
5. `Opportunity areas`
6. `Optional comparison context`
7. `Recommendations`

## Accessibility audit output structure

1. `Audit scope`
2. `Accessibility target`
3. `Confirmed strengths`
4. `Likely issues`
5. `WCAG-relevant considerations`
6. `Evidence limits and verification gaps`
7. `Recommendations`

## Combined audit output structure

1. `Audit scope`
2. `User goal and accessibility target`
3. `Strengths`
4. `UX risks`
5. `Accessibility risks`
6. `Opportunity areas`
7. `Evidence limits and verification gaps`
8. `Recommendations`

## Guardrails

- Focus on experience patterns, not business strategy.
- Keep comparator products optional; use them only when they sharpen the audit.
- Separate structural issues from polish issues.
- Tie recommendations back to the user goal, workflow, or accessibility outcome.
- Do not imply full WCAG compliance unless the user has provided the implementation details needed to support that claim.
- If the request is about a single screen, component, modal, or bounded interaction, keep the audit scoped to that surface.