A usability audit checklist for small businesses in Uzbekistan
A usability audit needs no lab. A phone, half an hour, and the forty checks below will do.
The first screen and clarity
Check whether it is clear within five seconds what you sell and to whom; whether the city is visible; whether a call-to-action button appears above the fold; whether the headline is readable on a phone without zooming; and whether a popup covers the first screen.
Language is a check of its own. Does the site open in the language a visitor expects, and is the switcher visible? If you run two versions, the switcher must lead to the equivalent page rather than dumping people on the homepage — the most common flaw on bilingual sites.
Navigation and structure
Check for no more than seven items in the main menu; item labels free of internal jargon; a clickable logo leading home; breadcrumbs on inner pages; and working search if the catalogue exceeds fifty items.
Walk the path to an enquiry from three entry points: home, catalogue, and a blog article. Count the clicks. More than three to reach a form means the structure needs work.
Check the 404 page: it should route back to the catalogue or home rather than dead-end on a system message.
The mobile version
Most traffic in Uzbekistan is mobile, so test on a phone first. Check for no horizontal scrolling; buttons at least 44 pixels tall; text no smaller than 16 pixels; tappable elements not crowding each other; a menu that opens and closes without a reload.
Test speed on mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. A site that takes eight seconds on 4G loses most visitors before the first screen renders.
Check how tables and price lists render on a narrow screen: they are the usual culprits for broken layout and overflow.
Forms and enquiries
Check that there are no more than four fields; that the phone field accepts the +998 format with spaces; that a format hint is shown; that errors highlight next to the field rather than in a banner; and that a clear confirmation appears after submission.
Verify the enquiry actually arrives. Send a test from your phone and check email, the spam folder and the Telegram notification. A broken form is the most expensive and most frequent failure on small business sites.
Offer an alternative to the form: a Telegram button and a tappable phone number. A large share of the local audience will message rather than fill anything in.
Contacts, trust and payment
Check that the phone number is visible and tappable on every page; that there is an address with a map, opening hours, legal details in the footer, and links to active social profiles and a Telegram channel rather than empty accounts.
If you sell online, check payment: are the supported methods listed — Payme, Click, card, bank transfer, cash on delivery; is it clear what happens after payment; does a real test transaction for a minimal amount go through.
Check that prices are present. A service page with no figure or at least a range in UZS pushes users to a competitor who showed one.
Recording the results
Keep a sheet: check item, status (ok, issue, critical), screenshot, owner, deadline. Without it an audit becomes a conversation after which nothing changes.
Sort fixes by implementation cost and impact: first everything that takes an hour and touches enquiries, then navigation, then visuals — in that order.
Repeat the audit a month after the fixes and compare behaviour in Google Analytics 4: pages per session, exit rate on key pages, and the number of forms submitted.