“Don’t include numbers when reporting the results of small-sample research studies!” “If you must, definitely don’t use percentages!” “And of course, don’t even think about using statistics!” We regularly hear variations of this advice from well-intentioned researchers, often senior ones. In 2005, we encountered this debate among UX professionals when we participated in a workshop
Unmoderated testing platforms allow for quick data collection from large sample sizes. This has enabled researchers to answer questions that were previously difficult or cost prohibitive to answer with traditional lab-based testing. But is the data collected in unmoderated studies, both behavioral and attitudinal, comparable to what you get from a more traditional lab setup? Comparing
Task completion is one of the fundamental usability metrics. It’s the most common way to quantify the effectiveness of an interface. If users can’t do what they intend to accomplish, not much else matters. While that may seem like a straightforward concept, actually determining whether users are completing a task often isn’t as easy. The
Many factors, including features and price, influence whether customers recommend software products. But usability consistently tops the list of key drivers of customer loyalty. Typically, usability accounts for between 30% and 60% of the “why” when customers do or don’t recommend products. A positive experience leads more customers to recommend a product. A negative experience,
Quantifying the user experience is the first step to making measured improvements. One of the first questions with any metric is “what’s a good score?”. Like in sports, a good score depends on the metric and context. Here are 10 benchmarks with some context to help make your metrics more manageable. 1. Average Task Completion
Everything should be 1 click away. It takes too many clicks ! For as long as there have been websites it seems that there’s been a call to reduce the number of clicks to improve the user experience. This was especially the case after Amazon released its one-click purchase button in 1999. Executives, product managers
These are three of the most important words for anyone trying to make better decisions with data. I first heard them from Edward Tufte over a decade ago. You need a meaningful comparison to turn data into information. We’re often in such a hurry to get the survey out, start the usability test or conduct
Completion rates are the fundamental usability metric: A binary measure of pass and fail (coded as 1 or 0) provides a simple metric of success. If users cannot complete a task, not much else matters with respect to usability or utility. Easy to understand: They are easy to collect and easy to understand for both
If a user can’t find the information does it exist? The inability of users to find products, services and information is one of the biggest problems and opportunities for website designers. Knowing users’ goals and what top tasks they attempt on your website is an essential first step in any (re)design. Testing and improving these
It depends (you saw that coming). Context matters in deciding what a good completion rate is for a task, however, knowing what other task completion rates are can be a good guide for setting goals. An analysis of almost 1200 usability tasks shows that the average task-completion rate is 78%. The Fundamental Usability Metric A
