combining web analytics and user experience

Make More Money FasterCombining Web Analytics and User Experience

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

©2010 EVANTAGE CONSULTING

Presented by Andrew Janis & Fred Beecher

@andrewjanis @fred_beecher

Once upon a time, we thought we were good.

Then we had an a-ha! moment.


Two Great Tastes…

And boy, is it delicious!

Two years ago, we created our UX & Analytics service…


What We Mean by “UX” and “Analytics”

User Experience Research• Research focused on uncovering the behaviors, goals, motivations, and

contexts of use of the users of a given interactive system

• Usually qualitative in nature

• Focused on the individual

Web Analytics• Website user data that shows how people get to your site and what they

do there

• Usually quantitative in nature

• Focused on the aggregate, or groups of users (segments)

Because it always helps to be talking about what you think we’re actually talking about…


Soo…why are you here?


Combining Analytics and UX is Awesome

Three Case Studies


Form Interaction – A Case Study

• 14 page quote and purchase process

• Client was moving to a new technology platform

• They thought the site was fine (but wanted to double check)

• Evantage was engaged to:

o Perform user testing

o Identify any areas for improvement

An insurance quoting website…


Form Interaction: UX+Analytics Approach

Approach

• User testing to identify usability issues in the current process

• Competitive user testing to identify strengths of competitor process

• Analytics data to validate, prioritize, and make the case to the business

We designed a combined approach to get the full picture.


Form Interaction: Marketing Funnel

REACH ENGAGE CONVERT RETAIN

Form Interaction: Marketing Funnel


Our Site

= Bad = Good

Easily found website

Asked for college

Our Site

Competitor Site


Form Interaction – UX Only?

If only UX were involved…

• Difficult to make the case for change

• Difficult to validate findings of testing with a small group of users


Form Interaction – With Analytics Involved

Form Completion Funnel

100%

72%63% 60% 59% 58% 56%

40%

7% 2.0% 1.5% 1.5% 1.3% 1.3%0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Start

Customer D

etail

Loan D

etail

Loan D

etail C

ont.

Coverag

e Choices

Just a Fe

w More

Things

Calculat

e Your P

remium

Show M

y Rate

Purchasin

g Infor

mation

Purchasin

g Infor

mation Cont.

Payment

Options

Credit C

ard

Your S

ignature

Than

k You

We know where people abandon the process.


Form Interaction: Outcomes


6%40% 238%

= Potential increase in conversion rate


Form Interaction – Bonus Forms


Doing More With Less – A Case Study

The company knew they had a problem• The website was trying to serve five audiences and succeeding at none

• Sales were declining

• Customers & distributors are complaining

• Competition was heating up

• But they didn’t know what that problem was

• Oh, and they were short on time and money

Evantage was engaged to improve a website for a large company that manufactures specialized construction materials


Doing More With Less – Initial Approach

What we wanted to do• Diagnostic usability testing

• User research

• Iterative design & testing

This required 1/3 more time & money than their budget & schedule allowed

The tight budget and short timeline forced us to take a different approach than we usually would


Doing More With Less – Initial Approach

The tight budget and short timeline forced us to take a different approach than we usually would

What we did instead• Website traffic analysis

• Guerilla interviewing

• User research

• Iterative design & testing


Doing More With Less – After Analytics

Analytics told us that…• People weren’t using the site as

much as we would have expected

• People were looking all over the site to find very specific information

• People couldn’t find what they needed so they searched instead

• Their searches showed that their terminology differed from what was on the site


Doing More With Less – Outcomes

The data we got from analytics helped us focus our user research and diagnose the problem while remaining within a tight budget & schedule

Results• Analytics data revealed that the key use for the site was to find very specific

information

• We focused on this use during interviews

• This helped us diagnose the problem accurately and fix it quickly, despite the constraints

• We designed and prototyped a solution to the pain points we identified

• The prototype was very well received

• Participants were very happy to participate in our research

• This worked because we were rebuilding the site from scratch


Conversion Rate Improvement – A Case Study

• New product launched with a highly specialized website and unique value proposition

• Client had done everything right: business plan in place, no skimping on design, usability testing on initial website

• Website was missing sales projections—badly—and they didn’t know why

• Evantage was engaged to…

o Perform an analytics review to diagnose the problem

o Increase sales

Company’s first attempt at ecommerce


Conversion Rate Improvement – UX Only

When only UX was involved..

• The initial design was based on assumptions about who the site’s audience would be

• Usability testing with that audience indicated that the site should work just fine…


Conversion Rate Improvement – Analytics Discoveries

When analytics got involved…

• We found that the initial assumptions about the site’s audience were incorrect

• The design was successful for only part of the audience



Bounce Rate Time on Site (s)Kids 25% 210

Moms 70% 100

Most moms and kids weren’t visiting the site together


Shopping Cart Progression Visits

1. Login/Register 20,5382. Shopping Cart 6,4273. Ship To Address 1,8754. Billing Address 1,0625. Credit Card Info 1,0716. Review Order 7157. Order Complete 635

Shopping Cart Completion Rate 3%


And the shopping cart was impossible to get through


Conversion Rate Improvement – UX

UX re-enters the picture

• Performed usability testing on the new site, with the correct audience

• 5 second tests

• Task-based usability tests

• Confirmed that the new site worked for moms

• Highlighted specific issues in shopping cart progression


Form Interaction – Outcomes

• Analytics identified two key problems that UX alone had missed

• Usability testing on new site validated analytics findings, provided context to shopping cart issues

Results

• Overall site conversion rate increased 300%

• Shopping Cart completion Rate increased from 3% to 19%

Together, Analytics and UX had a HUGE impact

Doing it Yourself

Places to Start the Collaboration

Landing Page Optimization

Site Navigation

Form Completion

Content

Testing

Terminology

Bounce Rate, Conversion Rate

Top Content How They Get There

Why people convert

Abandonment, Page Reloads

Specific Objections

Time Spent Is It Engaging?

A/B Testing What to Test

Search LogsHow People Use

Language

Be Delicious.

Thanks! Questions?

Andrew [email protected] @andrewjanis

Fred [email protected]@fred_beecher

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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