That is why you need to measure UX design efficiency and get up-to-date information to know how good your user experience is and how users perceive it. How can you do it? Monitoring the main metrics using specialized tools and services. We are going to share with you all the particularities of UX efficiency measurement.
The Goal Of UX Measurement And Why It Is Important
For a start, UX efficiency measurement is not performed with a few clicks. It is a long process that takes time and must be thought out. UX measurement implies the observation of users’ behavior — how they implement specific tasks, whether they have trouble with any actions, etc. It provides you with information about the experience of users.
But this information is not indicated as “cool,” “positive,” “bad,” “could be better,” and so on. It is stated precisely with numbers that you can understand if you figure out the principle of each metrics’ functionality and how it is calculated. It is especially important for investors if you spend their money to create software, and you need to provide them with the report.
So, UX measurement is not some kind of thermometer that shows you precise indications and calls to actions. You see the chain of users’ activities and their attitude concerning your product. There are many existing metrics, but you need only a few of them to measure UX efficiency. We will cover them in the next section.
Web and mobile UX measurement
Another critical issue you need to consider is UX efficiency measurement in mobile or web applications. There is no difference whether you create a mobile app or a website — you should know everything about the UX quality level in your software. The only difference lies in the types of services and tools for measurement.
What UX Metrics Exist And Their Difference
We will divide metrics into two categories — behavioral UX metrics and attitudinal UX metrics. Each type plays its essential role, and you should focus on both of them if you want to know everything about users’ opinions concerning your product.
Behavioral UX metrics
It is vital to understand how people use your product and what they do most in your product. Such metrics include the following:
- Pageviews
- Abandonment rate
- Conversions
- Task success rate
- Search and navigation
- User error rate
Pageviews. It makes it possible for you to figure out how many pages were viewed on your website or mobile app. How many clicks, taps, and steps were made on the pages? This data helps you know more about the activity in your software.
Abandonment rate. This rate helps you determine the number of users which added a product to the shopping cart and then left the page without further checkout. There are various reasons for it: a user was distracted by something, they found the same product at a more affordable price, or they decided to put off a purchase.
Conversion rate. One of the most critical metrics you need to monitor is the conversion rate. This is the number of users that did some specific actions like subscription, contacting managers, made a purchase, filled out a contact form, etc. The higher the conversion rate is, the better it is for your business.
Task success rate. TSR, or task success rate, shows the number of tasks that were executed correctly from the beginning to endpoint. For example, if ten persons started making a purchase, and two of them failed to do it, you need to find out what problems they faced. If the task success rate is high, it means that the user experience is on a high level.
Search and navigation. It is required to know how people use navigation bars and search bars in your software. That is, if users failed to find what they need while using navigation, their next step is to use a search bar. It means that UX is too complicated, and navigation isn’t too clear for users. So check these two metrics to see how people navigate through your web or mobile app.
User error rate. This rate shows the number of wrong entries. For example, users need to fill out the form to enroll. And they made a few unsuccessful attempts to input their credit card number or physical address. The higher the user error rate is, the more usability problems software has.
Attitudinal UX metrics
These metrics show you how users feel using your product, what opinion they have, what they say, etc. And how their attitude impacts brand perception. Metrics include the following ones:
- System usability scale
- Net Promoter Score
- Customer satisfaction
System usability scale. This is a short questionnaire with the most necessary list of questions. It helps you test the usability of your product and its particular parts. Why should it be short? Because users are unlikely to spend their time answering too many questions. SUS questionnaire may contain boxes where users just need to put a tick (agree/disagree, yes/no).
Net Promoter Score. This metric allows you to evaluate the loyalty of customers and their readiness for further actions on your software. To collect information about users’ loyalty, they are asked one main question “Would you recommend our product to a friend?” And there is a scale from 0 to 10, for example. Or answers like “Yes,” “Probably, yes,” “Certainly not,” etc.
Customer Satisfaction Score. To evaluate this metric, you need to ask relevant questions regarding the service quality level and related issues. The first and straightforward question is “are you satisfied with our website?”. The number of questions may vary, but remember that you shouldn’t ask too many questions.
Tools And Services To Measure UX Efficiency
When you know what metrics you should track, your next step is to identify HOW you will track them. With the help of special tools, you will be able to monitor all essential indicators of your product life. Let’s check these tools out.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a service from Google created for webmasters and optimizers that allows them to analyze the behavior of users on the website. Collected information is stored on remote Google servers. To connect the system, specialists need to install a small block of JavaScript code on the website’s pages.
Google Analytics helps monitor vital metrics like the following:
- Bounce rate. This is a percentage of website/mobile app visitors that visited the landing page and then left software after 5-15 seconds. The main goal of any software owner is to reduce the bounce rate as much as possible.
- Exit rate. It is different from the bounce rate since it shows the page where users left a website/mobile app mostly. For example, Contact us page. When users leave this page after filling out the contact form, it is not bad. They make conversions, and you get leads. But if they leave a product page mostly, it is an issue to pay attention to.
- Average time on page. Well, it is a clear metric. You monitor what pages users spend their time on more and make relevant conclusions.
- Average pages per session. You see how many pages are viewed by users per session.
- Device usage. It is suitable for software owners that want to know what devices are used to enter their product. If it is a mobile app, it will be used on tablets or mobile devices, of course. But a website may be used on all of these devices, and analytics help you find out how users prefer to surf your website.
Besides, apart from standard metrics to track, Google Analytics allows you to monitor custom behavioral metrics that are required in your particular case. However, you need the assistance of a programmer to do it.
Google Optimize
Google Optimize is a service for website interface testing. Using Google Optimize, owners may conduct A/B and multichannel testing, collect and analyze information about users’ behavior on websites.
A/B tests make it possible to learn about changes in users’ reactions if one or several components of the website are changed. A/B tests help evaluate which version of the site is better — the previous or current one. Thus, the behavior of users shows how the ideal website should look.
Hotjar
Hotjar is a powerful tool that helps website owners optimize conversions and improve the usability of their websites. The most popular features of Hotjar are conversion funnels, heatmaps, and records of users.
It also combines customer feedback tools and analytics to help users find out where visitors click more, how much time they spend on each page and their scroll map. Hotjar also contributes to questionnaires — you can use the tool to calculate customer satisfaction rates. Using this data, you will know all the weak sides of your website to improve them.
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is an analytical online app that provides you with tools to monitor the number of views. It generates heatmaps depending on where people made clicks. So you know what parts of the website you should focus on.
Heatmaps show you where users made conversions, and you can improve these pages to increase conversions. Scroll maps show how long users scroll the page down and where they stop mostly. Crazy Egg is used to see an overall activity picture on your software.
Heap
This tool is used both for mobile and web analytics. It is a tremendous competitor of Google Analytics that has some similar features. Heap makes it possible to measure the efficiency of UX and capture all actions of each user on a website or mobile app.
Heap allows tracking user events automatically, defining active users and user segments. Also, it tags websites and mobile apps without writing any code.
Clicky
The online service that allows controlling traffic, makes an extended analysis of traffic, responds to traffic changes, and provides detailed statistics. So this tool is a perfect option to monitor your traffic and all related actions.
Localytics
A massive multi-platform tool for mobile and web that allows you to understand your users better, track key events and user interactions, boost ROI, and build a top-notch marketing strategy. This tool boasts many features, and you can use it comfortably for UX efficiency measurement.
And finally, you need to collect feedback from customers, consider their opinion to improve your product. Don’t ignore their complaints and suggestions since loyal customers mean business success.
Conclusion
Analyze, analyze, and analyze — this simple truth you need to remember, just like two and two make four. By monitoring particular UX metrics, you will be able to respond to any changes immediately and make your service competitive. Mind to use the tools mentioned above to measure UX efficiency and how people feel about it.
If you’re planning to entrust UX efficiency measurement to experts, you’d better contact Cadabra Studio — troubleshooting software development and design company. The reliable team will help you deal with all troubles like the design and development process and post-release services.
Frequently Asked Questions
The main reason to measure user experience is to determine the satisfaction level of your target audience. UX is strongly tied to UI, so it has a big impact on customer satisfaction.
The timing of UX research may vary, but in general, it takes about the same time: generative research methods about 4–6 weeks; evaluation methods of research about 2–4 weeks; polls about 1-2 weeks.
To select UX metrics for your product, you need to understand business goals and KPIs. For example, measuring task completion time makes sense for activities such as authorizations but is useless when adding reviews.
