Best Practices to Measure the Success of a UX Design Project

Every designer wants that each product they create is satisfactory and easy to use. But how do we know for sure if that is so? For starters, we can measure the UX with proofs instead of opinions. But can we really measure user experience? Of course!

By calculating products using qualitative and quantitative methods, we can access an array of UX metrics.

Nothing feels better than finishing a UX project. Moving from design problem to solution requires a great deal of time, skills, and effort. Undoubtedly, crossing that finish line gives a sense of accomplishment but experienced UX designers are well aware that there is still a lot left to do.

Once the project is over, the C-suite would want to know how they can track the results the company is trying to achieve.

It is a legitimate concern and leads us to an even bigger question – how can designers measure the success of their UX design projects and prove that their work is worthy of the investment. Understanding and aligning the project and the business’s goals is a great start, but that’s not all.

To determine how successful a UX project is, we need to know the reason and the ways people utilize the products and then assess the results using UX metrics.

Evaluating the User Experience

What is meant by the term “product usability?”

Product usability can be described as the level to which the said product can be utilized by the defined users to accomplish specific goals effectively, efficiently, and with complete satisfaction in a defined context of use.

That might seem like a lot to take in, so let’s pull out the main components and understand them by breaking it down.

• Users – The group of people for whom the products are made.
• Goals – The objectives that the created products are meant to help the users in accomplishing.
• Context – The cases under which the products are intended or will be used.

In a nutshell, product usability can be oversimplified as the level to which the particular product helps the users accomplish goals in a specified use case. However, here we have missed out on one very critical aspect –

• Satisfaction – User satisfaction is one of the major aspects of product usability. Functionality and user-friendliness are essential, but the products also have to be aesthetically appealing and engaging.

Why Should We Measure Usability?

When our products are not satisfactory and making it difficult to achieve goals, users start looking for alternatives. The only sure-shot way to find out if we are actually fixing the design issues and not creating them ourselves is by running a product usability test.

We measure success using metrics so we can hone our products and influence the users for good.

Measuring UX Success With Usability

Before you start gathering data, it would be best if you draft a basic measurement strategy first.

• Determine which metrics you will be measuring.
• Utilize both quantitative as well as qualitative metrics.
• Set up clear time intervals to understand the emerging trends. The metrics collected on one day might tell a whole nother story than those collected during a week.

1. Task Success Rate

One of the most commonly used and easy to understand UX metrics, task success rates, displays the percent of users that completed a task successfully. This lets the designers pinpoint the troubles in user experience. You can easily measure the task success rate as long as the tasks have clearly specified goals.

Tasks such as completing signup, subscribing, or adding certain items to the shopping cart are perfect for this metric. However, you should remember that the task success rate does not tell how well the people performed the tasks or why they failed in doing so.

2. Task Completion Time

This metric evaluates the total time it takes a person to finish a specific task. Different participants will have different completion times for the same task because of various factors. Typically, the lesser time users are spending on a task; the better is the user experience.

Based on the assessment method and project type, there are numerous ways to calculate the task completion time.

• Average Completion Time – Only calculates users who literally finished the task.
• Mean Time to Task Failure – The total average time it takes the participants to either give in or finish the task wrongly.
• Average Time Spent on Task – The average amount of time users spend on the task.

3. Retention Rate

Generally speaking, retention rate refers to the percent of people that continue using a particular product over time. However, to calculate the product’s retention rate accurately, first, you need to know what actions and activity levels account for its use.

For example, these actions can involve logging in, visiting a blog, uploading/sharing/downloading files, placing orders, and so on. Evaluating the retention rate will help you better understand the long-term functionality of a specific product.

4. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate calculates the percent of people who take the desired action. Desired actions relate to product goals and encompass everything from registering to purchasing.

However, it is essential to note that these percentages can be misdirecting. For instance, a website might see a surge in traffic because of an ongoing marketing campaign. Even though the sales rise, the website’s conversion rate might sink due to the increase in traffic.

5. Error Rate

The error rate shows the percent of wrong entries users make. It is measured by dividing the total number of mistakes made by the total number of attempts. High error rates might be an indication of poor usability. However, with other UX metrics, it is important to specify what are invalid actions clearly.

6. Customer Satisfaction

This evaluates the overall satisfaction levels of the users, and there are multiple ways to track it:

• Surveys – Companies can conduct satisfaction surveys and ask questions from their customers that will analyze their levels of happiness.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – At the end of their surveys, brands typically ask the participants to rate how satisfied they are with them or their products on a scale of 1-3, 1-5, or 1-10.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – Calculate NSP by asking your customers what are the chances of them recommending your brand or product on a scale of 1-10.
• Customer Effort Score (CES) – Brands calculate their CES by asking the customers to rate their effort levels. For instance, on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is “very easy” and 10 is “very difficult,” rate your experience.
• Social Media Monitoring – Tools such as Google Alerts enable brands to see what users say about them on reviews, blogs, and social media platforms.

7. Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristics are preset usability principles (such as rules of thumb) that have been examined and tested over a long period of time.

Heuristic evaluation involves an expert evaluator identifying the usability issues of your user interface, if any, and rate the severity of these issues allowing the designers to know about and resolve the flaws quickly.

Quantifying the User Experience

AARRR Framework

The AARRR framework is an acronym for the five metrics that every business should track for their growth – Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. It helps companies in monitoring their customer’s entire life cycle with them.

• Acquisition – Channels from which the new customers are coming to the product.
• Activation – Percentage of new users that have a satisfactory initial experience with the company.
• Retention – Users that continue coming back to the company over time.
• Referral – Are the users liking your products enough to recommend it further to their friends?
• Revenue – Can the company monetize this user behavior?

RARRA Framework

This is virtually identical to the AARRR framework, but because of the cut-throat competition among digital products, the RARRA framework gives more priority to retention than acquisition. This framework’s idea is that if the product fails to make a solid first impression, customers might never return.

Customer Experience Index (CX Index)

CX Index is a way of tracking brand touchpoints, evaluating customer loyalty, and learning how each factor influences revenue. There are two main indicators of this framework:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

As the CX index score increases, the company’s ability to win over and retain the customers also increases.

HEART Framework

Developed by Google, this framework measures the success of products and features. The HEART framework is an acronym for its user-focused metrics – Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success.

• Happiness – How do customers feel about the product and how satisfied they are with it?
• Engagement – How often and how much are the customers interacting with the product?
• Adoption – How many new users have the company gained over a specified time period?
• Retention – How many existing users have the company successfully managed to retain over a specified time period?
• Task Success – What percentage of people have successfully completed a task?

Conclusion

UX designers can measure and compare their product usability over time using the UX metrics. They help disclose the areas that need improvements and enable designers to make decisions on the basis of proofs instead of beliefs. Designers must link these metrics to the client’s business goals and needs. When done right, measuring the user experience makes a big difference as it helps the designers build products that are both easy to use and satisfactory.