Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Thenewversiontestsworsethanthecurrentversion:Stepscanbetaken
to address the problem or put remediation plans into place.
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Nodifferencebetweenthecurrentproductandthenewproductisappar-
ent: The impact on the user experience does not affect the success or
failure of the new product. However, improvements in other aspects
of the product could make up for the lack of improvement in the user
experience.
User experience metrics are a key ingredient in calculating a ROI. As part of
a business plan, you may be asked to determine how much money is saved or
how revenue increases as a result of a new product design. Without UX met-
rics, this task is impossible. With UX metrics, you might determine that a sim-
ple change in a data input field on an internal website could reduce data entry
errorsby75%,reducethetimerequiredtocompletethecustomerservicetask,
increase the number of transactions processed each day, reduce the backlog in
customer orders, cut the delay in customer shipments, and increase both cus-
tomer satisfaction and customer orders, resulting in an overall rise in revenue
for the company.
User experience metrics can help reveal patterns that are difficult or even
impossible to see. Evaluating a product with a very small sample size (without
collecting any metrics) usually reveals the most obvious problems. However,
many more subtle problems require the power of metrics. For example, some-
times it's difficult to see small inefficiencies, such as the need to reenter user data
whenever a transaction displays a new screen. Users may be able to complete
their tasks—and maybe even say they like it—but many small inefficiencies can
eventually build up to impact the user experience and slow down the process.
UX metrics help you gain new insights and lead toward a better understanding
of user behavior.
1.4 METRICS FOR EVERYONE
We've been teaching a class on UX metrics, in one form or another, for almost
a decade. During this time, we have met many UX and non-UX professionals
who have little-to-no background in statistics, and even a few who were terrified
of anything that looks like a number. Despite this, we have continually been
impressed and inspired by how these folks are able to learn the basics on how
to collect, analyze, and present UX metrics quickly and easily. UX metrics are a
very powerful tool, but also easily accessible to almost anyone. The key is simply
to try, and learn from your mistakes. The more metrics you collect and analyze,
the better you will get! In fact, we even see some individuals who use this topic
simply as a guide to what types of UX metrics make the most sense for their
organization or project and then go off and ask someone else to actually do the
dirty work and collect/analyze the data. So, even if you don't want to get your
hands dirty, there isn't an excuse for incorporating UX metrics into your work.
We've written this topic to be easy and approachable to the broadest possible
audience. In fact, we probably favor simplification rather than a deep dive into
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