a practical guide to measuring user experience

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A Practical Guide to Measuring User ExperienceRichard Dalton, @mauvyrusset, #measuringux

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwl/5282931021

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#1 To learn from failure, you need to know if you’re failing and why – measurement can tell you that

@mauvyrusset #measuringux

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THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT R.O.I.

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#2 Evaluate your experience against something you care about – is it meeting it’s objectives?


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#3 The objectives of your experience will likely differ from those of the person sitting next to you


Tasks + EmotionsUsers do things to try to meet their goals

… and the business wants users to do things so it can meet its goals

Goals

Projects

Are realized through

Are enabled & encouraged by

Are created & changed by

Capabilities

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Users have goals

… and the business has goals

Projects create new capabilities

Projects change existing capabilities

Capabilities help users to do the tasks they want to do

… and encourage users to do the tasks the business wants them to do

TasksUsers do things to try to meet their goals

… and the business wants users to do things so it can meet its goals + Emotions

Users also have feelings about their goals & tasks

… and the business wants to encourage certain feelings

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#4 Measure how well tasks are satisfied by capabilities, not projects – otherwise you have no baseline


User-driven tasks

Business-driven tasksCapabilities

Follow Vanguard’s investing principles

Learn why Vanguard is great

Bring assets to Vanguard

Use Vanguard's products & services

Self-provision on the web

Spread the word about Vanguard

Trust Vanguard

Find an investment company

Act on my investments

Help my heirs be successful at Vanguard

Make good investment decisions

Monitor my investments

Stay current on news and commentary

Deal with taxes

Help other people be successful investors

Web

Phone

Paper

E-mail

Mobile devices

Radio/TV

90 tasks groupedinto 8 categories

45 tasks groupedinto 7 categories

635 capabilities and counting …

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Find an investment company

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Item profile(web)

Ready to buy

Tell others

Research an item

Trust us

Close the sale

Cross sell

Spread the word

User-driven tasks

Business-driven tasksCapabilities

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Compare the item to others like it

Get information on the item

Find out how much the item costs

Buy the itemFind out shipping costs and times

Find out how to pay

Tell a friend about the item

See if other people like the itemBuy the item

See related items

Believe that the site is safe and secure

Print details about the item

Save the item to look at later

See related items

Tell other people about the item

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Compare the item to others like it

Get information on the item

Find out how much the item costs

Buy the item

Find out shipping costs and times

Find out how to pay

Tell a friend about the item

See if other people like the item

Buy the item

See related items

Believe that the site is safe and secure

Print details about the item

Save the item to look at later

See related items

Tell other people about the item

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Emotional considerations

High-level design & content approach

Success criteria – “what is good?”

Shoppers are commonly fearful or unsure that they have chosen the best product for their needs and want to “comparison shop” the price and/or features of several products.

Show recently viewed items and provide access to a “compare to similar items” tool.

The ratio of users looking at recently viewed items via the “compare to similar items” tool vs. pogo-sticking back to the gallery page should be 20:1 or better.

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Measure Success Criteria

Measures vs. Success Criteria

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iUXX3rF1Axo/TC0fGhmlV0I/AAAAAAAAAMw/atKJuTja0AM/s1600/butterfly+growth+chart2.jpghttp://www.clarklings.com/uploaded_images/IMG_1100-732092.JPG

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S1.01 Get information on the item

S2.01 Buy the item

P1.01 Buy the item

S1.03 Compare the item to others like it

S1.02 Find out how much the item costs

S1.04 See if other people like the item

S2.03 Find out how to pay

S2.02 Find out shipping costs and times

S3.01 Tell a friend about the item

Research an item

Ready to buy

Tell others

P2.01 See related itemsP3.01 Believe that the site is safe and secure

P4.02 Tell other people about the item

OutcomeDriversCro

ss se

ll

Trust

us

Sprea

d the w

ord

Ishikawa (fishbone) diagramhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram

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#5 Measuring outcomes can tell you if a capability is failing. Measuring drivers can tell you why


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A. General effectiveness in satisfying the task“I’ve done it” or “Now I understand”

1. Completion or conversion rates2. Did future user behavior change as a

result of this interaction?

B. Findability of a known item“I know where I’m going, don’t get in my way”

Speed to find the first task

C. Were the user expectations met?“Oh, that wasn’t what I wanted, let me go back …”

Link bounce rate

D. Client satisfaction“Huh, that information was useless”

1. “Was this useful/helpful” surveys2. “Loss of sale” surveys

E. Was enough information provided?“Don’t leave me wanting more info”

Usage of a second source of information

F. Are users travelling the paths we expected them to?“I can’t find the link, I’ll go back to the homepage first”

Relative usage of one path vs. another to identical destination

What’s being evaluated? Measure

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Success Criteria

Enduring Temporary

Measure a single solution against a predefined criteria

Compare two or more solutions against one another using A/B testing

Use for on-going monitoring

Criteria set by past user behavior or future expectations.

Use for point-in-time improvement

Point-in-time “winners” identified by test results.

ExampleTask: Get information on the item

Loss of sale surveys should show that problems with item information account for less than 5% of lost sales

ExampleTask: Print details about the item

A/B test two versions of the printer friendly entry point (link vs. button)

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#6 Ask; how would the user behave if we nailed the design? How would they behave if we screwed it up?


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Sometimes people aren’t ready to listen

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#7 Be open about the uses & limitations of data & involve people early – it helps gain buy-in


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Beware good intentions

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#8 Avoid misleading measures - temptation to use the data is too strong. Ask “what if the result is X?”


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Ostridge

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs36/f/2008/285/4/f/You_make_kitty_scared_by_GreenLabRat.jpg

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

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#9 Be unbiased. Don’t be afraid to measure things that might contradict your own opinion


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I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that

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#10 Don’t lose your perspective about how data fits into your decision-making process


30http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammra/279392432/

But we have over 635 capabilities!

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#11 Start small. Pick a capability, identify objectives, define measures and watch what happens


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Richard [email protected]@mauvyrusset

Thank you

a practical guide to measuring user experience

Design