Home Page
Primary user task: A first-time visitor is orienting themselves, deciding whether Care UK is the right organisation for their situation and which next step to take (find a home, learn about care, customer support, or careers).
~3 phone-screens of scrolling could be reclaimed on this page if these findings are addressed.
The site's entry point at 17 phone-screens. The page tries to be every page at once, eleven distinct content blocks below the hero CTA before the footer. The dark-purple section-intro panel pattern from P01 carries over here at lower density (3 panels rather than 8). Most measurements are healthier than the rest of the audit, image-jump rate is 29% rather than 77%, body type is dominated by a 16 px default, but the page's role as a wayfinding doorway is diluted by content that belongs on dedicated hubs.
Most of the home page’s measurements are healthier than the rest of the audit. The single H1 sits at the top, body type is overwhelmingly 16 px, only 29 % of images load without explicit dimensions (the rest of the audit averaged 77 %), and there’s no horizontal scroll. The pattern problem is structural rather than micro-typographic, the page is doing more than its primary task asks of it.
Page-specific findings
F00.2 High density The home page does more than orient the visitor
The user lands here to orient themselves and pick a next step (find a care home, careers, customer support, contact). Below the hero CTA the page runs through eleven distinct content blocks before the footer: an intro paragraph, a "Where do I start?" panel, a "Finding the perfect home" CTA card, an embedded video, four "Types of care" tiles, an awards carousel, a "We're committed to the highest standards" section, three "Help & advice" article cards, three news cards, and a careers signpost. Each block in isolation is reasonable. The cumulative effect is that the home page tries to be every page at once. A first-time visitor scrolls 17 phone-screens of mixed content before reaching the footer.
F00.1 Low navigation "Welcome to Care UK" appears as both an H2 and an H3
The same wording, "Welcome to Care UK", appears as an H2 at the top of the intro section (y=504) and again as an H3 on the embedded video card label (y=2505). The screen reader heading rotor reads two welcomes and the page outline carries an extra entry that says nothing new.
Cross-page findings that apply here
These are component-level findings catalogued in the Cross-page findings view. Each is observed on multiple pages, so they're worth highlighting separately from page-specific issues.
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-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-FOOTER.1 Medium 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-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.
Potential ways forward
Observations on patterns that could improve the issues above. These are possibilities worth exploring, not committed solutions, the audit's deliverable is the diagnosis.
Wayfinding over storytelling
Treat the home page as a doorway, not a destination. Lead with the primary user paths (find a home, careers, customer/family support) and let secondary content live on its dedicated hubs. The "Help & advice" articles, news cards and 49-item awards carousel can each signpost out from the home page rather than render inline.
Lighten the section-intro pattern
Three dark-purple section-intro panels carry the same shape problem from P01 at a lower density. The pattern still dilutes the same colour used for primary CTAs, so worth tightening across pages even when the count is small.
Footer hit-area
The eight footer navigation links sit below the WCAG AA touch minimum on every page (see C-FOOTER.1). A single footer-component change propagates to all seven audited pages.