The focus on optimisation sets an interesting constraint on the use of web analytics – you can optimise a process to improve efficiency, or reduce errors. But the implication here is that web analytics doesn’t have much to offer the design process, and I think there are significant opportunities.
We are shaped by the tools we use habitually. Its good for us as practioners in a range of disciplines to be able to draw on different disciplines. And with the current generation of tools like google analytics means you don’t have to be a specialist to get depth and value.
London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 forecast that future travellers would be older. Research into older travellers showed they often go into the toilet, so many new toilets were planned. !However, deeper investigation discovered they were going into the toilets….to hear the announcements. It was the only place they could find where they could clearly hear the flight calls! So now the airport is putting new audio areas where you can clearly hear your flight call…. (credit Clive Grinyer)
Shopping cart abandonment can be easily measured. Shopping cart abandonment is a useful metric from a business perspective – it measures sales not made today. But problems arise when it is used to describe the customer experience – and when conclusions like this one are drawn So abandonment as it is framed here is a technical concept that originates from the mental model that the business has of its process. It doesn’t effectively describe the customer experience, and actually it can serious constrain thinking from a customer-centric perspective.http://www.shopsafe.co.uk/news/online-shopping-cart-abandonment-analysed-by-royal-mail/10098
http://econsultancy.com/blog/6075-checkout-abandonment-on-the-riseSo of course it easy to see that customer behaviors are significantly more complex than the headlines suggest – as per this recent research from Forrester. So 3 out of 5 of these reasons don’t represent abandonment at all – they represent real opportunites to create an ongoing relationship with the customer.
The fact that we continue to use these business-objective metrics to characterise customer behaviour is potentially a real missed opportunity.
Case study for previous iteration of the design: conversion rates had declined over the lifetime of the site – around a 2-year process. The sense was that the shopping basket and checkout were increasingly outdated and this was preventing completion of sales. A project was defined to re-design the checkout and basket and comparative usability study commissioned. Closer exploration of the available analytics didn’t really support the theory that the checkout was the problem area and the user study was widened. It actually turned out that the merchandising strategy for the site had also degraded over the lifecycle – customers just weren’t being presented effectively with product, and the checkout process was not the main issue.
May require additional relationships within the clients
A very challenging target audience of ‘at risk’ learners – older, generally low levels of previous education, generally lack confidence with computers, very often have other issues that are a barrier to engaging with education. A ‘launch early and listen’ strategy. An initial exploration of the analytics helped us define the targets for the research for this iteration, and helped define the demographics – so a very targeted cost-effective piece of user research. One of the main target areas was around use of video on the site. Less than 10% of visitors use the video – so significant pressure to reduce its use on the site. But those that did often watched several video segments. From the user research we identified specific customer segment – the core of our most vulnerable users that were motivated and engaged by video. And a model for what they got from the video and how they were likely to use that defined how to use video in the future.
Analytics isn’t enough – does not generate formative insights on its ownQualitative, observational user research generates formative insights, but is too expensive to do continually