Measure of your success: How do you ensure that your digital products meet user expectations?

Millions of people around the world use stairs every day. We do it reflexively, without thinking about it. Would any of us be able to give you the ideal stair step height? Do any of us realize that such a height exists?

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It was calculated based on the average height, length of the foot and the angle of flexion of the knees of the wearer, all in order to reduce the number of trips and reduce the level of fatigue.

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Achieving this height certainly did not take place without examining the user experiences and analyzing them thoroughly. The same can be done with a digital product.

When we talk about digital products, User Experience designers often have to explain that there is no perfect measure, providing a single solution that addresses all needs. However, just like stair architects by measuring the user experience, we are able to improve the products offered, which translates into a positive experience of using the product.

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Applications

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In the Google Store we can currently find more than 3 million various applications. Whereas only 5% of them have been downloaded more than a hundred thousand times. In addition, statistics say that even if a particular application has been downloaded, in 90% it is usually most often quickly uninstalled or forgotten.

The question arises which can lead to the abandonment of innovative and seemingly necessary applications? One of the reasons you could give is probably a poor first impression. The reason may also be the evaluation of the user based on selective experience.

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So is the number of app downloads a metric we should focus on? Developers often brag about how many times their app has been downloaded from the online store, however, few later cite the number of uninstalls or abandonments of the same app.

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What, then, should be a suitable meter to provide complete data? Let's try to take a closer look at our user and what is sitting in his head.

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Paradox of active user

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This is a theory that finds its application in digital products and beyond. It has its origins in 1980, where it was observed during research in IBM User Interface Institute. It states that users do not read the instructions, but immediately proceed to use the software or service.

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Let's try to imagine now a situation in which a user enters the Google Store, downloads the calendar application, in order to add a visit to the dentist. If this simple activity takes too much time, we can be sure that he will not add anything else to the calendar, remembering this very bad experience. This will happen, regardless of whether the UX designer has developed a unique and very efficient way to manage time.

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The active user paradox tells us that the design of user experiences must correspond to their real behaviors. How they make decisions and what influences them. Keep in mind that we do not design for the ideal, rational consumer who is ready to change their existing behavior, just to use our digital product.

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The logic of the digital product versus the logic of the user

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They must complement each other and cooperate with each other. The UX designer at the moment of drawing the user's path, mapping his experience, pays attention to the moments when the logic of the digital product and the logic of the user diverge. These are the moments that he then carefully analyzes, because it is here that the area to increase the positive experience in the reception of the product is located.

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That is why it is so valuable monitoring user response, especially in the online world. Of course, the metrics that we want to track and the goals we set for ourselves are important here. It can be a challenge to properly select all UX metrics, which will both be available for analysis, but also will not interfere with the user experience.

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KPI and UX metrics

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Are the key performance indicators of the so-called? KPI Could they be one of the gauges? The fact that they are not always linked to the user experience makes them not, in this case, the best choice.It is worth introducing UX metrics here. You can take advantage of framework HJERTE developed by Google employees. This framework allows you to measure experiences across individual interface elements and across the entire digital product. It consists of 5 Metric, which can be used interchangeably, it is not necessary to use them all at once.

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How to ask about customer satisfaction at all?

• Happiness (Consolace) answers the questions:
  • What do people think of the digital product?
  • Is it easy to use?
    Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be used to measure by asking the user if they would recommend a product or service to others.
• Engagement (Involvement) answers the questions:
  • How often does a user interact with a digital product?
  • how much time does he spend on the app?
    It is important to remember that, for example, the length of the session on the website sometimes depends on problems related to the operation of some functionality or slow loading of the page, and not on the user's own engagement.

• Adoption (Product Adaptation) answers the questions:
  • How many new users start using the product?
  • How many new users start using a product feature?
    
• Retention) is related to engagement and measured by the number of users who have not stopped using the digital product
  
• Task Success answers the questions:
  • Is the user able to complete the task efficiently?
    Measurement is most often done by calculating the time it takes to complete a specific task, and the percentage of completed tasks and the number of errors made. Here it can be, for example, the number of abandoned carts or the average time it takes to complete the registration process.
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‍The use of a given metric should be linked to the previously defined goals that we set for our digital product or its functions.The use of a given metric should be linked to the previously defined goals that we set for our digital product or its functions.

“There is only one boss — the customer”

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Sam Walton, one of the creators of the Walmart chain, wrote that: “The customer is the only person who can fire everyone: starting with the CEO down, terminating the deal and spending their money somewhere else.”

In the commercial world, money is often the measure of success. However, the amount of money earned does not in any way translate into information whether the user enjoys using our product. We also do not know whether if the competition provides a similar product, only a better one, then our user will not quickly and smoothly move into this competition.

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Information about the user experience that interacts with our product is expressed in a different metric than money. For the customer, the product for which he pays is a certain whole story, in which money is only one of many elements. UX designers are kind of narrators of this whole story, and UX metrics are indicators, which determine the level of value of a given solution, which relate to how the digital product is perceived by users.

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E-commerce Platforms on the Internet

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Starting shopping in the online store, we start with the search. As a rule, this is a pleasant moment for us. Having chosen this suitable thing, we add it to the basket, check the description and move on. In the basket we check the price again and there comes this moment of reflection, and sometimes hesitation, whether we want to spend this money.

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We plan. how and when we want to receive our shipment and we are getting closer and closer to the moment of payment. Here our insecurity increases, no one likes to have less money. In our head, we calculate and analyze whether I need this product for sure. If we encounter any obstacle at this stage, it can further deepen our uncertainty and greatly annoy us.

It is our emotions, much more than the real need, the price or the quality of the product that determine whether we spend money in this particular store. In this area, UX designers have a chance enhance the user experienceand, by the way, increase sales.

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What measures should be used in digital products?

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Just how to do it? How can we measure the quality of the user experience? At each stage of the purchase path, we can use a different technique and choose a different measure.

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Even before the product lands in our shopping cart, we can already ask about the user experience at this stage. An example is Allegro. The search engine is used by customers all the time, so they ask their satisfaction with the search results obtained. This allows them to improve the performance of the search engine and make it easier for customers to reach the product. Allegro uses one of the 5 metrics of the HEART — Happiness framework here.

The analysis of the key points of experience and the changes that occur between them, allows us to reach further points for improvement. We can combine the financial data we hold with quantitative data that provides information about the flow of users. Such a combination will allow us to observe which user segments bring us a satisfactory amount of money. Here we certainly should not stop, just go one step further and supplement Quantitative analysis with qualitative datathat will allow us to talk directly with our user. We distinguish, among others:

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• In-depth interviews (so-called IDI)
• Satisfaction surveys
• Analysis of the content of complaints or tickets in support
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Collecting this kind of data and then analyzing it allows you to react more quickly to any market changes. We also have the opportunity to create something new or simply to meet the needs and expectations of customers. Time always counts here.

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Facebook and IKEA

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From a business point of view, the experience of a user who folds a new bed is measured in a different way, and in another user who is a customer of an online store or platform in social media. Nevertheless, we can find some common points here. The most important thing, however, is that the users themselves will compare these experiences to each other, through memorized patterns of conduct.

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Let's start with IKEA. Each of us certainly had their famous instructions in our hands. It was in 1956 that entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad, co-founder of IKEA, offered a special way to pack furniture, allowing it to be transported and assembled independently at home.

The task he faced at the time: how to guide the customer through the process of assembling furniture so that they know what to do at each stage?

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A long research work allowed IKEA to introduce simple and minimalist in the design instructions for folding furniture. The instruction was intended to guide the client through the entire process in an easy way, but also to prevent the moments of greatest irritation, when performing this action. Annoyed users happened to destroy furniture under the influence of rage. Designers paid special attention to these moments.

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The result is an instruction that includes pictures taking into account every smallest screw. In addition, here we will also find different views of the elements from above, at an angle as we see them at the time of working with them. Completing each stage ends with a small reward. And already completing the folding of furniture is a huge achievement.

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IKEA effect

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He says that, we tend to become attached to objects, including digital ones, that we have created ourselves. In addition, for such items we can overstate the value by 60-70%!

This phenomenon is now used on a daily basis, for example when introducing users to a new application. One example is the language learning app — Duolingo. Employees compared how many new users install the app vs. how many of them open the first lesson. Based on the data obtained, they concluded that if users engage in learning at least once, they are willing to continue it.

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In response to this, in the application before choosing your own course, we have the opportunity to use a tutorial, showing how to learn a few words, e.g. in Norwegian. It makes us feel that we have already taken our time to achieve something. Now we are much more willing to engage in other courses. Selecting the meter in this way gives Duolingo the opportunity to improve processes and increase user satisfaction.

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Facebook giant

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Now let's take a look at the Facebook we know, which has studied the engagement of its community in a similar way. At the beginning of the platform's existence, they faced the problem of a large number of accounts that quickly became inactive. Users logged in, checked out what the platform had to offer, and quickly forgot they even had a Facebook account.

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Analyzing user data, the researchers observed that the number of people invited in the first days of using the platform tends to increase the frequency of its use. Users do not want to spend time in a place where their friends are not.

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This is how the principle of “7 friends in 10 days” was created, based on which an algorithm was created that encourages users to search and add friends, during registration and right after. People who managed to add 7 friends were considered social media influencers in the first 10 days, and algorithms focused on them to encourage them to add content, make friends or check out new features. The rest of the giants such as Instagram, Twitter or TikTok have joined Facebook and to this day they use this meter successfully.

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In fact, we expect what is already well known to us

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Let us now consider whether it is possible to measure expectations, for a digital product that is just entering the market? Each business model, as a rule, will measure the user experience and the success of the digital product differently. Nevertheless, there are universal measures, since certain expectations of our users are common.

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Jacob's Law

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Under this law, users spend a lot of time on other platforms and would like your platform to look similar. Now you probably understand why most clothing stores on the internet look and function in a similar and predictable way. Using Jakob's Law allows our customers to focus on browsing the online store instead of wondering how it actually works. In short, users focus on what is pleasant, leaving the rest to what they are used to.

Our habits

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However, this rule will not always work in our favor. At the moment when our client is used to receiving praise for every successful action, such as when he managed to save a file, he will remember the moment when he did not receive this praise the most. Here it is worth remembering that users compare such experiences referring not only to our competition. They can compare the experience they had at an online store that offers clothing with that they experienced on a site that offers mobile subscriptions. Users combine elements common to these platforms, for example, such as:

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• price
• purchase process
• shopping cart
• moment of payment

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Combining these steps definitely simplifies the decision-making process. We can focus on the most important elements and omit the less important ones.

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That is why it is so important when designing a digital service or product to ask yourself what will be the key functionality in the product that distinguishes it from other competing products? If you can't answer this question at first, it's worth a try. measure and refine.

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Click & Collect

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Let's take a look at Tesco. They offered their customers the option of making purchases in person as well as online with home delivery. Option two, was to satisfy the need of a customer who does not want to waste time looking for products in a large store and then standing in long queues. However, it turned out that courier delivery is associated with the need to be at home at strictly defined hours.

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The answer to this problem is the introduced service — click & collect. It involves ordering products online and picking them up at a store or a dedicated pick-up point. This offer also solved the problematic topic of payment for delivery, which was not felt the same as when customers had to go to pick up their order themselves.

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The click & collect service, i.e. order online and pick up in store, has changed over time. There were various other problems associated with it. Problems on both the customer and the seller side. Customers have complained of problems finding a pick-up location or long queues arising during the holiday periods. The seller, on the other hand, had problems updating stock in real time.

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Click & Collect at retail

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Retailers have certainly benefited from the creation of the click & collect service. This allowed them to:

• reduce the cost of supply,
• reduce the cost of maintaining the fleet,
• reduce the number of couriers employed.

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Looking at the current situation, where inflation has strongly affected all these areas, and especially fuel prices, this is of great importance.

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The advantages of click & collect have been noted, also by many companies from other industries than grocery. Not to mention the pandemic itself, which contributed to the dynamic development of this form of service. According to the latest research, click & collect will account for almost 11% of online retail sales in the UK by 2025.

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Appropriate determination of the factors that influence the success of the business model, makes it possible to duplicate this success. On the other hand, it also allows you to observe areas that negatively affect the user experience and improve them. Tesco has created a kind of experience that wasn't on the market before, and which is becoming increasingly popular in a variety of industries.

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Is there a way to measure the relationship with the customer?

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In the example of IKEA, we learn that emotions are an important measure to measure the user experience. Emotions play a key role when it is so important to us to keep users permanently. Apps like Duolingo, Slack, Mailchimp are popular on the market because they engage their users to some extent all the time.

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In e-commerce, such examples will be the clothing brand Patagonia - focused on a sustainable economy model, or Nike - combining the pleasure of sports with digital accessories in its products. Both of these brands know their customers very well, they know how to communicate with them. It is this knowledge that is the basis for building an appropriate brand identity.

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Get to know your client

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How to measure such an experience? The brand and the customer must speak with one voice. How to do it? We need to get to know such a client really well. Starting from demographics, ending with his favorite color. We need to know how our customers think, what bothers them, what doubts they have that stand in their way.

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Mailchimp is a platform that, among other things, distributes marketing emails. They put a lot of effort into getting to know their user. They realize that clicking “Send” and sending an email to a thousand customers at once can be very stressful. Their response to this difficult situation for the client is — proper communication.

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Mailchimp communicates with its users in a relaxed way, using the likable gorilla character. This gorilla, step by step, guides the user and shows him what actions he has taken and what effect they will bring.

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The source of knowledge that allows you to design a digital product in this way can be the queries that the customer service receives. They may relate, for example, to a specific obstacle encountered by users while using the product.

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This data allowed the problem to be identified and then allowed to test various other solutions, which led Mailchimp to the conclusion that it is best to communicate with a subtle sense of humor and by providing clear and clear instructions that are now its hallmark.

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How to stand out — the elements

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It should be borne in mind that brand language, identity, transparency as well as the whole image are strongly linked to the business profile. In another way, we will design a medical service that requires a clean, neat design, properly selected colors and understandable language, otherwise we will create a skateboard shop that needs dynamism, communicates with original graphics and sometimes uses slang.

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And in another way we will also talk to individual customers, for whom time and their needs matter, and in another way with business customers who pay attention to the costs, strategy and capabilities of the product. The purpose of defining such rules is to observe what elements the user reacts to — for example by selecting a specific entry point, clicking on the banner of the offer, paying attention to an encouraging advertising slogan, or the corresponding text on the button. Each group of customers may have their own metrics that are worth analyzing.

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Product market-fit

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This holy grail of any digital product, contrary to appearances, is not as unattainable as we might think. You just have to look at the right metrics.

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One of the most common methods when introducing a new product is — “Let's go all out, we'll see what works and what doesn't.” This method sometimes works, and sometimes, unfortunately, it does not. This involves a very high risk. First of all, if we are in a situation where we have invested a lot of money in a new product. Some of this risk could definitely be avoided.

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Work on new products should be based on the use of UX methods that allow:

• testing ideas at an early stage of the project,
• collecting key information about the product (from the first prototype!)

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The fastest mail in the world

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The story of the Superhuman platform, which offers the “fastest email in the world” for business, can be very inspiring. Entering the market, the company followed the same principle as Dropbox or Eventbritre — measure the market-fit product to optimize it on an ongoing basis.

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A select group of people heard the question: “How would you feel if you could no longer use our product?”. The answer was, “I would be very disappointed.”

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Based on research conducted by Gmail founder Sean Ellis, Superhuman set a threshold of 40% of responses — “very disappointed.” According to the study, when a startup had less than 40% of such responses, this was often associated with slow growth. The group that provided such answers was then examined. People were given a survey asking them to accurately indicate the benefits of the product that made them happy, and to identify areas that need to be looked at and improved.

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It is a way that allows you to know the weaker areas of the digital product or service, as well as the needs of users that can be answered. An example is the calendar on our phone. We use it to record dates that are important to us. However, this is due to the need to organize our time faster and better, as well as the desire to plan accordingly.

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In exactly the same way, Dropbox users do not perceive this service as an additional drive. Their need arises from the desire to simplify and facilitate the organization of files, for example using shared folders. It is also important for them to access these files from anywhere on earth, while feeling that the data they store there is safe.

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UX as a competitive advantage

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Let's now consider whether a good user experience can give us a competitive advantage. It's like the question of whether a properly tailored and fitted suit will lie better?

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The needs of our customers are one of the driving forces of business, especially the digital one, where it is so easy to simply copy the look of a competitive site. However, users remember not those platforms that are fine, but the ones that provide them with the best experience.

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For some users, this will be the time in which they have to perform a given action. For others, it will be the sense of independence, agency or uniqueness that Apple provides.

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The methods and measures of user experience design are not only based on research and experience. They also try to understand which values are key for users and that is what to emphasize. On the one hand, UX metrics can be used for early warning and on the other hand to indicate new trends.

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By measuring the user experience and combining it with business measures, you can find a kind of golden mean, between the income obtained and what is best for our users. If the user feels that the company cares about the satisfaction of its customers, they will be more willing to entrust their money to them.