People before auditing tools
It's the most natural thing in the world. Someone decides the website needs to be better, and the first question is which tool should we buy?
We get it. Tools are concrete. You can compare features, read reviews, run a pilot. It feels like progress. But in our experience, the teams that make the most progress with their websites (and get the most out of their auditing tools) are the ones that start somewhere else entirely.
They start with the people who use the site.
What does "people first" actually mean?
It means asking questions before opening a product catalogue. Questions like:
- Who actually visits this site, and what are they trying to get done?
- Where do they get stuck, frustrated, or confused?
- Who is being left out? Are there visitors for whom the site simply doesn't work, because of a disability, a slow connection, or an older device?
- What does it cost us, in trust and in revenue, when the experience is poor?
These are human questions more than technical ones. And the answers shape everything that follows. Which metrics matter, which fixes to prioritize, and (eventually) which tools make sense.
Empathy mapping
There's a concept in service design called empathy mapping. It's a simple exercise where you map out what a specific person sees, hears, thinks, and feels as they use a service. It sounds soft. It is soft, in the best sense of the word.
When you apply this lens to your website, something shifts. A speed fix stops being a number on a dashboard and starts being the customer on a train connection who'd otherwise have given up before your page loaded. An accessibility fix stops being a compliance checkbox and starts being the person using a screen reader who can finally complete the checkout on their own.
Good auditing should feed this empathy. A useful report shows more than scores. It tells you something about the people on the other side of the screen.
Technology is a means, not an end
None of this means tools don't matter. They absolutely do. A well-chosen auditing tool saves time, surfaces patterns you'd miss by hand, and helps you make the case for the investment your website deserves.
But the tool should serve the practice, not define it. And when you do choose one, we believe it should respect the same values you bring to your work:
- Transparency. You should be able to see how your site is tested and what the scores mean. Open source tools make this possible.
- Sovereignty. Data about your site and your visitors should stay under your control. (We've written more about this in What is digital sovereignty?)
- Simplicity. A tool that needs a specialist to operate concentrates knowledge in one person. The best tools are the ones your whole team can use.
So next time someone says we need a tool for that,
try pausing for a moment. Ask: What are we trying to learn? And who are we trying to help?
You might end up choosing the same tool. But you'll use it better, because you'll know what you're looking for, and why it matters.
People before tools, always. It's a core belief at Webperf. If that resonates, take a look at how we put it into practice.