Improving design processes through quality standards
ISO audits make sure every team follows a consistent and quality-driven development process. As a UX designer, my role was to prepare and maintain all UX artifacts, support internal audits and confidently represent the UX process when the product I worked on was selected for external audit.
Earlier, when I worked in the baggage portfolio, I was part of an external audit for Worldtracer Desktop, where the main focus was the development life cycle. The auditor wanted to understand how a feature moves from requirement, to UX design, to development, to testing and finally to release.
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Later, when I moved to the operations portfolio, I experienced a different side of the audit process. This was a completely new portfolio for me and I did not initially understand airport operations. So even before audit preparation, my first task was to build the knowledge, understand workflows, and figure out what should be communicated to customers.
This learning made the audit process even more interesting because I had to understand both the product and the audit expectations simultaneously.
A major part of the process is the internal health check, which every product must go through regardless of whether it will eventually be selected for the external audit.
During this phase we:
• verify that all design artifacts exist
• update documents
• correct broken links
• ensure design briefs, personas, user flows and prototypes are all up to date
• prepare proof and evidence for each stage of the UX process
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For example:
I worked on the internal health check for the customer facing product as well.
Even though this product did not go through an external audit, we still had to ensure the UX artifacts were complete and compliant during the internal audit round.
This made me realise that every product must always be audit-ready, not just the ones ultimately chosen.
Only after all internal health checks are completed does the external auditor announce which product they will audit.
Their choice depends on:
• customer base
• product maturity
• development activity
• relevance to the audit theme that year
This means teams are never sure in advance which product will be selected. So maintaining complete, clean documentation becomes a continuous responsibility.
When World Tracer Desktop was audited, I worked closely with the PO and tech team to trace UX tasks across the full development cycle. Auditors usually want to see:
• how UX is part of the story workflow
• proof of customer touchpoints (if applicable)
• how design reviews happened
• how the team ensured quality from both dev and UX perspectives
• evidence that UX artifacts match what was actually delivered
Depending on the audit theme, UX sometimes becomes the main area of focus and sometimes only supportive.
Because I was part of the Design Partner Program in my later portfolio, this gave us stronger evidence during audits, as customer collaboration added maturity to the UX process.
Internal health checks are as important as the external audit itself.
• Good documentation is essential design briefs, user flows and prototypes must always be up to date.
• Each audit has a different theme, so UX involvement changes each year.
• Clear communication is extremely important when responding to auditors.
• Cross-team alignment (PO, Dev, QA, UX) is key to passing both internal and external audits.
• Understanding the full SDLC helps UX defend decisions with confidence.
• Even when auditing is stressful, it teaches discipline, organisation and clarity in UX process.
