Cross-page findings
Component-level findings: patterns that aren't unique to a single template but recur across multiple pages. These represent the highest-leverage problems observed across the audit, the same issue appears in more than one place.
C-ALIGN.1 High layout P01P02P03P04P05P06 3 Section components sit with inconsistent alignment to the page edges, breaking visual flow
Across the audit, several different section components on the same page render with mismatched left and right page margins. Some sit flush to the left edge with a wider right gutter; others reverse it; some sit roughly centred but with their inner content offset. On a mobile viewport where horizontal space is already at a premium, the result is a page that reads as misaligned. Each section starts at a slightly different horizontal position, the vertical rhythm down the page breaks, and the side with exaggerated padding wastes content area. Beyond the wasted space, the inconsistency carries a cognitive cost. Each new section asks the eye to re-anchor on a different horizontal axis. The user is constantly recalibrating where content begins and ends, which interrupts the natural top-to-bottom reading flow and adds friction to scanning the page. On a long page (the Care Home Detail page is 27 phone-screens deep), that friction compounds. The pattern is observable on the Care Home Detail page across the purple intro panels, the lighter-grey content cards, the Feature text panels (variants A and B), Care at our home, Reviews & Ratings, and the Nearby homes block. It carries over to the listing, promo-landing and careers templates, which inherit the same section components.
C-CARD-LIST.1 High density P02P03 3 Care-home result card is heavy on mobile (around 770–970 px tall per card)
Each card stacks a full-width image, a title row, a CQC line, a 7-row care-type matrix showing offered + not-offered services with similar visual weight, a phone number row, and a full-width "VIEW HOME" button. On P02 the template runs around 770 px per card (verified from heading positions); on P03 it's closer to 970 px because each card adds a description block. Either way, only about one card fits on the visible viewport at a time.
C-CHAT.1 High layout P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 Two persistent bottom-anchored widgets compound on every screen
Two competing always-on bottom widgets reduce the effective scrollable viewport by ~80–200 logical px on every screen of content the user reads. WCAG 2.4.11 (Focus Not Obscured), content under a persistent widget cannot be focused without scrolling around it. Per page: - P01, Olark chat icon + Recently Viewed (2 widgets) - P02–P03, Recently Viewed only - P04, Recruiting Assistant + Recently Viewed (2 widgets) - P05–P06, Recently Viewed only
C-CAROUSEL.1 High touch P01P04 3 Slick.js pagination dots are 20×20 px (sub WCAG AA touch minimum)
The dots are 20×20 logical px, below the WCAG 2.5.8 AA minimum of 24×24 px. They are the primary affordance for paginating image carousels on mobile, where swipe is the alternative but discoverability of swipe vs the dots is mixed.
C-IMG.1 High layout P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 71% of images across the audit are missing width / height / aspect-ratio
Images without explicit dimensions cause **layout shift** as they load, content jumps as the browser reserves space. This produces a poor Core Web Vitals CLS score (a Google ranking signal) and a janky perceived performance. The brief explicitly calls this out. Per page: - P00: 21 / 72 (29%) - P01: 242 / 297 (81%) - P02: 13 / 15 (87%) - P03: 10 / 12 (83%) - P04: 18 / 69 (26%) - P05: 3 / 5 (60%) - P06: 104 / 106 (98%)
C-PANEL.1 High density P00P01 3 Inverse-purple section-intro panels are used heavily across the page
Eight dark-purple panels announce sections across the page, each carrying a heading, a 2–3 line intro and a single CTA. On their own each panel is a reasonable section header; at this density they accumulate, and the dark-purple treatment dilutes the same colour used elsewhere for primary CTAs. The panels themselves vary in height, short on some sections, taller on others, and we don't have a per-panel measurement we can stand behind, but across the eight instances they take a substantial share of the page, before the user reaches the section content that sits beneath each one.
C-PANEL.2 Medium density P01P06 2 "At a glance" / "Job at a glance", long table-like metadata block
Stacks 4–6 rows of metadata (Location, View map, CQC Rating, Availability, Pricing PDF, Contract PDF on P01, Location, Pay, Shifts, Contract, Reference on P06). Sits in the second viewport on both pages.
C-CARD-LIST.2 Medium density P02P03 1 Care-type matrix gives offered and not-offered services the same visual weight
Each result card lists 7 care types as a matrix. Pink-check icons mark services the home offers; grey-circle icons mark services it doesn't. Both states get the same row height and the same visual weight, so "what isn't offered" takes up just as much of the card as "what is." Across 10 cards on P02 (70 rows) and 7 cards on P03 (49 rows), a meaningful chunk of every card is given to absences rather than presences. There's also no explicit label clarifying that the grey circles mean "not offered", the user has to infer it from the icon contrast against the pink checks.
C-FONT.1 Medium typography P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 11–14 px text used in 100+ places site-wide
WCAG and iOS HIG both recommend ≥ 16 px for body text. 11–12 px text is below that floor; 14 px is borderline (acceptable for footnotes / captions, not body copy). P01 alone has 39 elements at 11 px, 38 at 12 px, 99 at 14 px.
C-NAV.1 Low density P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 Top utility tab bar consumes ~50 logical px on every page
The three audience tabs (CAREERS / CARE HOMES / CUSTOMERS) sit at the very top of every page, they're a Care UK Group navigation (sister-site switcher) but consume permanent vertical space on a small viewport.
C-FOOTER.1 Low touch P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 Eight footer navigation links sit below the WCAG AA tap minimum on every page
Eight footer links measure 19 px tall on every audited page: About Care UK, Press & media, Feedback & complaints, Careers at Care UK, Legal & regulatory information, Privacy policies, Cookies policy, Web Accessibility. The WCAG 2.5.8 AA minimum is 24×24 px. These don't qualify for the inline-text exception in 2.5.8, since each link is its own row in a stacked footer navigation list, not a phrase inside a sentence. They are explicit navigation controls.
C-ALIGN.1 High layout P01P02P03P04P05P06 3 Section components sit with inconsistent alignment to the page edges, breaking visual flow
Across the audit, several different section components on the same page render with mismatched left and right page margins. Some sit flush to the left edge with a wider right gutter; others reverse it; some sit roughly centred but with their inner content offset. On a mobile viewport where horizontal space is already at a premium, the result is a page that reads as misaligned. Each section starts at a slightly different horizontal position, the vertical rhythm down the page breaks, and the side with exaggerated padding wastes content area. Beyond the wasted space, the inconsistency carries a cognitive cost. Each new section asks the eye to re-anchor on a different horizontal axis. The user is constantly recalibrating where content begins and ends, which interrupts the natural top-to-bottom reading flow and adds friction to scanning the page. On a long page (the Care Home Detail page is 27 phone-screens deep), that friction compounds. The pattern is observable on the Care Home Detail page across the purple intro panels, the lighter-grey content cards, the Feature text panels (variants A and B), Care at our home, Reviews & Ratings, and the Nearby homes block. It carries over to the listing, promo-landing and careers templates, which inherit the same section components.
C-CARD-LIST.1 High density P02P03 3 Care-home result card is heavy on mobile (around 770–970 px tall per card)
Each card stacks a full-width image, a title row, a CQC line, a 7-row care-type matrix showing offered + not-offered services with similar visual weight, a phone number row, and a full-width "VIEW HOME" button. On P02 the template runs around 770 px per card (verified from heading positions); on P03 it's closer to 970 px because each card adds a description block. Either way, only about one card fits on the visible viewport at a time.
C-CHAT.1 High layout P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 Two persistent bottom-anchored widgets compound on every screen
Two competing always-on bottom widgets reduce the effective scrollable viewport by ~80–200 logical px on every screen of content the user reads. WCAG 2.4.11 (Focus Not Obscured), content under a persistent widget cannot be focused without scrolling around it. Per page: - P01, Olark chat icon + Recently Viewed (2 widgets) - P02–P03, Recently Viewed only - P04, Recruiting Assistant + Recently Viewed (2 widgets) - P05–P06, Recently Viewed only
C-CAROUSEL.1 High touch P01P04 3 Slick.js pagination dots are 20×20 px (sub WCAG AA touch minimum)
The dots are 20×20 logical px, below the WCAG 2.5.8 AA minimum of 24×24 px. They are the primary affordance for paginating image carousels on mobile, where swipe is the alternative but discoverability of swipe vs the dots is mixed.
C-IMG.1 High layout P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 71% of images across the audit are missing width / height / aspect-ratio
Images without explicit dimensions cause **layout shift** as they load, content jumps as the browser reserves space. This produces a poor Core Web Vitals CLS score (a Google ranking signal) and a janky perceived performance. The brief explicitly calls this out. Per page: - P00: 21 / 72 (29%) - P01: 242 / 297 (81%) - P02: 13 / 15 (87%) - P03: 10 / 12 (83%) - P04: 18 / 69 (26%) - P05: 3 / 5 (60%) - P06: 104 / 106 (98%)
C-PANEL.1 High density P00P01 3 Inverse-purple section-intro panels are used heavily across the page
Eight dark-purple panels announce sections across the page, each carrying a heading, a 2–3 line intro and a single CTA. On their own each panel is a reasonable section header; at this density they accumulate, and the dark-purple treatment dilutes the same colour used elsewhere for primary CTAs. The panels themselves vary in height, short on some sections, taller on others, and we don't have a per-panel measurement we can stand behind, but across the eight instances they take a substantial share of the page, before the user reaches the section content that sits beneath each one.
C-PANEL.2 Medium density P01P06 2 "At a glance" / "Job at a glance", long table-like metadata block
Stacks 4–6 rows of metadata (Location, View map, CQC Rating, Availability, Pricing PDF, Contract PDF on P01, Location, Pay, Shifts, Contract, Reference on P06). Sits in the second viewport on both pages.
C-CARD-LIST.2 Medium density P02P03 1 Care-type matrix gives offered and not-offered services the same visual weight
Each result card lists 7 care types as a matrix. Pink-check icons mark services the home offers; grey-circle icons mark services it doesn't. Both states get the same row height and the same visual weight, so "what isn't offered" takes up just as much of the card as "what is." Across 10 cards on P02 (70 rows) and 7 cards on P03 (49 rows), a meaningful chunk of every card is given to absences rather than presences. There's also no explicit label clarifying that the grey circles mean "not offered", the user has to infer it from the icon contrast against the pink checks.
C-FONT.1 Medium typography P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 11–14 px text used in 100+ places site-wide
WCAG and iOS HIG both recommend ≥ 16 px for body text. 11–12 px text is below that floor; 14 px is borderline (acceptable for footnotes / captions, not body copy). P01 alone has 39 elements at 11 px, 38 at 12 px, 99 at 14 px.
C-NAV.1 Low density P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 2 Top utility tab bar consumes ~50 logical px on every page
The three audience tabs (CAREERS / CARE HOMES / CUSTOMERS) sit at the very top of every page, they're a Care UK Group navigation (sister-site switcher) but consume permanent vertical space on a small viewport.
C-FOOTER.1 Low touch P00P01P02P03P04P05P06 Eight footer navigation links sit below the WCAG AA tap minimum on every page
Eight footer links measure 19 px tall on every audited page: About Care UK, Press & media, Feedback & complaints, Careers at Care UK, Legal & regulatory information, Privacy policies, Cookies policy, Web Accessibility. The WCAG 2.5.8 AA minimum is 24×24 px. These don't qualify for the inline-text exception in 2.5.8, since each link is its own row in a stacked footer navigation list, not a phrase inside a sentence. They are explicit navigation controls.