User experience (UX) will make or break a product. If it’s simple to understand, interpret and implement, it will fly. If it’s clunky, overly complicated and frustrating, it will falter.
Knowing this is not enough; you have to make UX measurable if you want to improve it. Read on to learn about the metrics to track, the approaches to harness, and so much more besides.
Getting to Grips with Quantifying UX
First, let’s talk briefly about why this matter in a touch more detail. If your UX is on-point, then your product is achieving what it was designed to do in the first place.
In turn this leads to end-user satisfaction, and while this sounds like an intangible and vague concept, in this context it definitely is not.
In fact, it’s a sign that points to the importance of qualitative metrics, alongside the quantitative metrics which are more straightforward to grasp. So, what are those metrics, exactly?
UX Metrics Which Hold the Most Weight
You can’t rush ahead with analyzing UX without knowing what to focus your attention on. There are quite a few examples to consider, including:
Failure vs. success
When a product is put to work, it can either succeed in serving the needs of the user or fail. The former divided by the latter gives you the task success rate, and this metric alone is enough to tell you whether your UX is broadly adequate or broken.
The task in question will vary depending on the product, and in the digital age this usually means monitoring the way a website or app allows users to fulfill a specific action. This might be logging into their account, it might be updating their personal info, it might be searching for a page or product.
Because of this, you have to set out which tasks are relevant to UX and measure them accordingly. Also take into account that task success rate gives no insight into what causes failures, or whether successes were achieved easily. For that, you’ll have to dig deeper.
Do you want to improve your user experience?
Timing
Sticking with task assessment, you can measure the duration of interactions and work out whether optimization is required based on the results.
As a rule of thumb, shorter task completion times are desirable. You can measure successes and failures independently, with this data potentially pointing you to the root of a UX issue that’s gone unnoticed so far.
User conversion & retention
There are two aspects to achieving user loyalty. First, you have to convert them, and then you have to retain them after their initial interaction with your product.
Conversion and retention rates are commonly discussed in a web context, and you have to define your own parameters for what each constitutes.
For example, a conversion can be a sale achieved after a visitor clicks through from a paid ad or a social post. It could also be a visitor who signs up to a newsletter, downloads an ebook, or completes some other interaction with your product. This is where other disciplines, such as UX-focused copywriting, enter the fray as well.
Retention metrics must also be debated and decided upon based on the unique needs of your project. Having a previous user come back and log into their account again might be enough to count as having planted the seed of loyalty.
Alternatively, you might set tighter standards, such as requiring returning users to have fulfilled a more in-depth interaction before a retention measurement is taken.
Mistakes
This is a separate category to failures, because it’s entirely possible for users to make errors and then still succeed in the task they’ve started with your product.
Again, defining the parameters of mistakes must be done based on your specific product design and features. Once this is in place, you can use any signs of a high rate of errors being made to indicate where remedial action has to be taken.
User satisfaction
We touched on the seemingly ephemeral concept of satisfaction earlier, and there is a surprisingly diverse array of approaches to measuring this in a meaningful way.
As you might have guessed, customer surveys still sit pretty at the top of the pile for getting direct feedback on satisfaction from users.
Another, newer strategy is to make use of social media monitoring tools to keep tabs on mentions of your product or brand, and gauge levels of satisfaction from this independent, unsolicited user feedback.
In all of this, having a tool that offers analytics for UX is a must. Modern platforms can cope with tracking all of these metrics and many more, with a particular focus on apps and websites.
You can delve into the depths of user behavior, see not just how many problems exist, but what might be causing them, and where fixes lay.
Frameworks To Explore & Implement
You don’t have to start from scratch when quantifying user experiences, and indeed this isn’t advisable. It’s better to adopt one of the numbers of purpose-built frameworks that experts have developed over the years to help organize and orchestrate your own UX improvement efforts.
There are a number of frameworks with different benefits, such as:
Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue (AARRR)
It may have an abbreviation that sounds like the call of a corsair, but the AARRR framework has been around for over 15 years and is based on the principles of quantifying growth metrics for startups in particular.
It’s a case of looking into the route new users take to reach your product, the proportion that are satisfied with their first interaction, the number that return for subsequent engagements, the percentage that refer others over to you, and the extent to which these insights are monetizable.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a competing RARRA framework, which uses the same stages be re-jigs them to put the spotlight on retention instead of acquisition.
Shoring up loyalty definitely makes sense as a priority in the case that you are working with digital products, because acquisition costs are steep, and it’s better to keep current users happy and get referrals than to always be chasing new users.
Customer Experience Index (CX Index)
A more recent arrival on the scene, the CX Index is the creation of research firm Forrester, and aims to make UX analysis even more holistic by bridging the gap between the digital and the physical realms.
At a time when customers can find out about a product at a bricks and mortar store, then use the web to access it, this all-encompassing angle definitely makes sense, although it applies more to big business than it does to up and coming companies.
Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success (HEART)
You could argue that this Google-originated framework has had its order scrambled simply to make a pleasing acronym, and indeed this is the case, so don’t attempt to follow the exact order in terms of priority, as you might with AARRR.
Happiness is simply a reframing of user satisfaction, but encompasses how products make people feel, not just how adequate they found its functionality.
Engagement is about tracking the frequency of interactions a product receives, which goes back to our overview of the importance of timing.
Adoption looks at acquisition rates, but boils this down to particular periods. The more people you get onboard in a shorter period, the better.
Retention and task success are straightforward, and each of these five categories within HEART is further broken down into a series of goals, signals and metrics, which of course feed into one another.
Create a great UX by using the right metrics and framework!
The Realities of Quantifying UX
Now you know about the metrics involved and the frameworks that are most widely adopted today, it’s worth touching on what awaits you as you move forward with your adventures in UX optimization.
First, this is not a process that can be carried out and completed in one fell swoop. Instead, you will have to be on the ball over the lifespan of your product so that usability issues can be nipped in the bud, and users can be attracted and retained rather than heading elsewhere.
Second, there are lots of UX analytics tools out there, and leveraging them is sensible. However, you’ll also need to learn the ropes of the metrics and the frameworks in-depth so that you can extract maximum value from any software you bring to bear on this task.
Last, there’s the issue of confirmation bias, which is particularly applicable to subjective aspects of UX analysis such as carrying out customer surveys.
You have to be balanced and objective when asking for feedback on your products, or else the data you generate from the research you conduct won’t be worth much.
The Bottom Line on UX Design
There’s a lot to take in, and this primer has barely scratched the surface of what’s really needed to design products that really click with users.
Your next steps should be to take heed of the tidbits of advice above, and apply them to your projects as needed, while always being aware of what makes your products unique.
Growth Hackers is an award-winning user experience (UX) marketing agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners create an effective user experience, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales. We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
