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When a user visits a website, the goal is to make them want to buy something. User experience (UX) design aims in creating a pleasing and intuitive experience for the user. The problem is that not all sites have a great UX. The lack of usability can lead to low conversions means fewer revenues generated for the company. For example, Google Analytics is a web analytical tool that was introduced by Google which helps in tracking down the performance of your website. from various metrics perspectives including that of UX, but does it meet all the goals of collecting user information, journey and effective feedback?
So how do you know if your site has a good UX?
There are many types of approaches and analytics tools that are available out there. This will help you understand how your website is performing in terms of conversion rates, average time spent on the site, bounce rates, etc.
We will discuss what is UX data, its importance, types of data collection/analysis techniques for your website, and why you should use them and what value does it bring to your sales teams, especially when planning the sales funnel.
What is UX data?
UX data is any information related to a user’s experience when it comes to using your website or app. Analyzing user behavior is a good way to find UX data. For this, the stats are needed and the UX data is being collected. A User’s interaction with a product, service or solution is known as “user behavior.” For example, a user might touch a button and immediately go back to searching for something else or might even use voice or gestures to interact intuitively with the system. The user’s interaction with the product affects what that product can do or how it behaves to each “call to action” or touchpoint. You can use data from behavior analysis to figure out what motivates your users, how they interact with the product and how they are using the product. UX data includes cultural, demographic, location and other user details, these could vary from product to product and as per the defined “persona” of the product or service. A Persona is a likely fictitious end user identified as the “end user” of the product or service.
The Best Ways to Collect UX Data
There are numerous ways data is collected by the user-experience team. Below are some of the most popular ways to collect data from digital experiences across devices and platforms. This post outlines some of the the best methods for collecting UX data. You might be surprised to learn that not all UX researchers use survey software. Research team members gather accurate data by talking to your users in certain cases, which takes less time and is not expensive. End users are people and they love to talk to someone rather than fill out surveys, though surveys work as well but aren’t the best options for collecting UX data at scale. You can take advantage of email and chat apps, too. For example, one in-house study showed that nearly two-thirds of responders opted for the telephone or chat option, over an online survey. It’s important to remember that your research team members need to be armed with the best way to gather, store and analyze data, including investment in tools that help run research across regions, and at scale in short spans of time. The following are some techniques that are used for data collection:
- Survey Method
Surveys are the least and best-known and most common method for data collection. These are conducted on a very basic level to determine the top concerns of your customers. An excellent UX research survey should ask your visitors questions to determine their motivations for engaging with your company or app. Long surveys are a deterrent to many users. Many online surveys have a high abandonment ratio.
- Interviews
Interviews stand out as one of the most powerful customer/user experience data collection techniques. It can help you track and analyze UX data. Have a question about how someone is using your product and your website? Thoughtfully contact them. Find out their expectations about your product, their top reasons for purchasing it, their priorities, their pain points and many more. Take the time to talk to them and understand their needs and problems. Find out their pains and what can be done to make your product more efficient and convenient for them to use. Walk through their journey and let them show you what worked and didn’t. Effective interviewing is an art. We have a FREE UX interview masterclass for your team, if you so wish to train them. Get in touch for more details!
- Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a traditional research technique. It is used when a researcher wants to measure or identify a particular item or an attribute. This is different from survey and normally contains , you guessed it right- Questions. These types of questionnaires are designed to ask specific questions such as whether people are concerned about a particular feature or if they prefer one design over the other. There are standard UX and Usability questionnaires that are used for governance . For example: Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI), System Usability Scale (SUS) User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and so on.
- Observation
Observation is another old research method. It involves watching how people engage with a particular aspect of a product, site or service. It usually involves direct observation of people using the product or service and finding out more about how to navigate through it. Digital tools Omniscopy are widely popular in observing large sets of users per product, tasks or even specific journeys.
- A/B Testing
Perhaps the most basic means of collecting UX data and analyzing is the A/B testing. It is a type of method that differentiates two versions or types of a product or service. It is done to know which one can provide better results.
- Moderated and unmoderated user research
A moderated user research is when a professional user researcher moderates a specific set of tasks or UX goals and drives research with a certain number of end users, ideally about 5, 7 or maximum 9 people. Research has proved that beyond these numbers the data collected is generally a plateau of repeated findings. An unmoderated user research is when a task or journey is carried out by an end user without any assistance or “moderation”. Both these methods can be carried out remotely or in person as per need and test circumstances.
- Eye tracking and gesture tracking
Eye Tracking is another old scientific method of collecting user experience data. Usually popular with marking and specific brand studies to understand where exactly are the users looking, gazing or using gestures. Traditional eye tracking has evolved over time with smart glasses and cool wearables to carry out the studies and no longer requires the strange looking wearables for mapping brain and sight details as done a few decades ago.
There are 100 other ways besides these key UX data collections methods like Card Sorting, Heuristics Evaluations, Task analysis, Guerilla testing and many other methods. There’s a wide variety of tools and services too. UX and CX Data collection has reached new heights with the pandemic and exponential growth of digital onboarding. It is a great way to understand what consumers or users are doing with a product or services, what is selling well, why or why not? This also gives you a great insight as to what content or elements might be missing and what could be impacting your sales including the sales funnel. When your strategy revolves around the conversion rates (with the goal to help people to make the right choices), collecting data is imperative. Even something as simple as tracking where your website visits are coming from and what they are clicking on can help you optimize your marketing campaigns.
These are some of the reasons why collecting user data is so important for business teams and sales to target areas that need more attention. The ease of use, access, consumption and conversion is sacredly important. As a business owner, when you receive that order confirmation email from a prospect asking to buy your product, to try it out for free, it can be hard to say no. But if you your UX data over time is available at your fingertips it becomes easy to decide the next action, the big win conversion and growth strategy with a die-hard fan base of users hooked to your product or service.