Combining Web Analytics and User Experience

Make More Money Faster
Combining Web Analytics and User Experience
Presented by Andrew Janis & Fred Beecher
SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
©2010 EVANTAGE CONSULTING

Once upon a time, we thought we were good.
Then we had an a-ha! moment.

Two Great Tastes…
Two years ago, we created our UX & Analytics service…
And boy, is it delicious!

What We Mean by “UX” and “Analytics”
Because it always helps to be talking about what you think we’re actually talking about…
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)

Soo…why are you here?

Combining Analytics and UX is Awesome

Three Case Studies

Form Interaction – A Case Study
An insurance quoting website…
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:
Perform user testing
Identify any areas for improvement

Form Interaction: UX+Analytics Approach
We designed a combined approach to get the full picture.
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

Form Interaction: Marketing Funnel
REACH
ENGAGE
CONVERT
RETAIN

Form Interaction: Marketing Funnel
REACH
ENGAGE
CONVERT
RETAIN
= Bad
= Good
Easily found website
Asked for college
Our Site

REACH
ENGAGE
CONVERT
RETAIN
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
We know where people abandon the process.

Form Interaction: Outcomes
REACH
ENGAGE
CONVERT
RETAIN
40%
238%
6%
= Potential increase in conversion rate

Form Interaction – Bonus Forms

Doing More With Less – A Case Study
Evantage was engaged to improve a website for a large company that manufactures specialized construction materials
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

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 wanted to do
Diagnostic usability testing
User research
Iterative design & testing
This required 1/3 more time & money than their budget & schedule allowed

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
Company’s first attempt at ecommerce
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…
Perform an analytics review to diagnose the problem
Increase sales

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

Most moms and kids weren’t visiting the site together

And the shopping cart was impossible to get through
Shopping Cart Progression Visits
Login/Register 20,538
Shopping Cart 6,427
Ship To Address 1,875
Billing Address 1,062
Credit Card Info 1,071
Review Order 715
Order Complete 635
Shopping Cart Completion Rate 3%

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
Together, Analytics and UX had a HUGE impact
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%

Doing it Yourself

Places to Start the Collaboration
Bounce Rate, Conversion Rate
Why people convert
How They Get There
Top Content
Abandonment, Page Reloads
Specific Objections
Time Spent
Is It Engaging?
A/B Testing
What to Test
How People Use Language
Search Logs

Be Delicious.

Thanks! Questions?
Andrew Janis
ajanis@evantageconsulting.com
@andrewjanis
Fred Beecher
fbeecher@evantageconsulting.com
@fred_beecher

Combining Web Analytics and User Experience

by Andrew Janis

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