Integrating web analysis in the user experience design process

Integrating web analysis in the user experience design process Erik Verdeyen David De Block www.internetarchitects.be 26 th September 2008 EuroIA Conference 2008 - Amsterdam

About this presentation

Information Architects are used to have their work reviewed:

Expert review

Usability / eye-tracking research

...

This type of research has its limitations:

Not representative

Based on user scenario’s

Too little attention for:

Findability

Conversion

Core paths (Are Halland) Core Most optimal unit of consumption Balance business and user goals

Web analytics:

Adds information about findability and conversion

Gives you an insight about ALL your users

Makes affordable continuous UX optimization possible

Plan Do Measure Adjust

Analytics doesn’t replace anything in the design process:

Analytics doesn’t tell how to improve when you don’t meet your targets

It is no substitution to seeing how people really interact

It is only usable as soon as the site is live

It is a complimentary tool in the UX design process

UX people are ideal for performing web analysis:

We are the most user centered profile in a web team

We are used interpreting user’s behavior

Optimizing ease of use is our core business

It makes the ROI of UX design tacit for marketing and business - it justifies our job  / 

Capital expenditure vs operational expenditure

Conclusion:

Web analytics enrich the UX design process

It is a bridge to the marketing and business people

We are the best party to be in the driver’s seat

Content of the presentation

Introduction in Web Analytics

Web Analytics in the UX design process

Some current evolutions

ACT 1: Introduction in Web Analytics

Narrow point of view:

Measuring behaviour of website visitors (= core)

Wide point of view:

Measuring which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives (= core paths)

Core Most optimal unit of consumption Balance business and user goals

Introduction in Web Analytics new users vs. returning users Findability Calls to action Core

Cross media

SEO

SEA

Prof. networks

Online ads

E-mailing

Content-push

Job search

Job browse

Job details

My HR

RSS

Newsletter

Apply online

This presentation takes the wide view

It is what your customer wants:

He doesn’t want usability and UX as such

He wants to meet his targets, he wants conversion

Conversion is also a measure stick for public or non-profit sites

Targets / conversion:

Has to be determined

Different for every site

Retail informative site Government website Bank site B2B Webshop

Business goals are described in KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators:

Drive business-critical action

Rates, ratios, percentages and averages instead of raw numbers

Highlight change instead of presenting tables of data

Not more than 10

Focus points of the new generation tools

Traffic : where do people come from?

Users / content : what are people doing?

Conversions : did I reach my goals?

Loads of tools available:

Free / paid

Service / software

Introduction in Web Analytics A free tool in the Forrester report 

It doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated

Google Analytics can be a great starting point

It’s better to invest in people than in tools

As long as you use the tool well:

That’s more than next, next, …, finish

Measure your KPI’s

ACT 2: Web Analytics in the UI design process

Case

Belgium.be:

Portal Belgian Federal government

Bi-lingual country

Spans federal government plus regions

Portal team of 15: 10 theme managers + 5 specialists (search, metrics, news, publications,…)

Doesn’t replace the ministry sites:

“ broad but not deep”

an entry point to gov info

up to date

…

Approach

Define

Intake

Strategy

Findability

High level concept

Define phase - intake

Belgium.be portal vs. the other gov sites

Define phase - intake

Web analysis of existing site:

to learn from the past

to give you input for realistic expectations

Findings:

Primary goal of portal – “dispatching” people – was not met at all

People were looking for all governmental information

Conclusion:

Emphasis on“portal”

Belgian government portal

Define phase - strategy

After definition of the business goals

Define KPI’s:

Increase in traffic in target sites (due to better portal function)

Increase in link backs from gov sites

Top keywords

…

By the end of the define phase, we had:

Clear findings from the past

Indicators – based on strategy – to measure success (KPI’s)

Cross site measurement

Within a cluster of sites, taking a site as boundary is arbitrary

One visit is perceived a three visits

Cross site measurement

Identify problems with the overall IA strategy

Styleguide & guidelines

Link with cross media efforts

global data on user behavior

Design

Navigation

Functional design

Graphical design

Demosite

Eyetracking

Design phase – functional design

After defining functional specifications: Create a web analysis inventory document :

General measuring requirements

E.g. campaigns, links, custom variables

Reporting and exporting requirements

E.g. comparative reporting, site overlay, segmentation

Reports:

General reports

E.g. bounce rates, # clicks / visit

Reports based on KPI’s:

E.g. external links, # visits in Dutch / French

Design phase – eyetracking

Use of KPI’s to add conversion driven scenarios

Design phase – eyetracking

Testing a number of scenario’s and hypothesis

Testing (demo site, pre launch): do people use the doormat navigation system

Live site: check real life situation with analytics

Design Phase - eyetracking

Testing: do people find/use functionalities

Live site: check usage and be- havior, identify problems

Some more examples

Hypothesis in the design phase can be confirmed through web analytics, e.g.:

Facetted navigation

Banner blindness

Portal functions: exit to other gov sources

…

Design phase – delivery to development

It’s important that your web analysis tool measures the right information:

Write an implementation plan

Work closely together with the implementors

Realize

Development (external party)

Support:

Graphical

Content wise

Functional

Technical

Web analytics configuration

Quality assurance

Realize phase - configuration

Web analytics configuration:

Build your own reports based on custom variables

E.g. external links

Define goals

E.g. campaign

Segment your audience:

E.g. civilians vs. Foreigners

Dependent of flexibility of your tool

Realize phase – Quality Assurance

!!! Test whether all information comes in

You don’t want to miss the launch

Optimization

Findability

Search Engine Optimization

Internal

External

Campaign management

Core

Conversion

Optimization

As soon as the website goes online:

Make sure your client understands the metrics

Encourage him to have an optimize phase in the project before going operational or start a new project

Belgium.be: optimization phase in progress

Plan Do Measure Adjust

Optimization phase – KPI dashboard

Try to do something about the information overload:

Provide your client a KPI dashboard:

Manually - in excel

Automatically - via API

Try to involve the manager

Optimization phase - findability

Findability has lots of facets:

Direct traffic

Search engine

Campaigns and push technology

Referrals

…

It’s an important aspect of the information architecture

Make sure you can segment your users on the way they came in

Calculate the Cost per Conversion (CPA) and weigh the options

Optimization phase - SEO

Search engine optimization:

Internal search:

Optimize the search results of your top 50 keywords

External search:

Optimize the content for your top keywords

Optimize your landing pages and navigation

Search engine optimization - SEA

Search engine advertising

Becomes more and more important

SEA management tools become available

E.g. nightly exclusion of “bad performers”

Search engine optimization - SEA

Even within public services

Using SEA to get traction

Ad-hoc emergency communication

Mind shift needed from “this is advertising” to “this is improving our findability”

Optimization phase – campaigns

Different types of “campaigns”:

RSS / widgets

Banners

Email campaigns / newsletters

Identify them all:

Calculate the cost

Segment and optimize

Optimization phase - core

Optimization of the site:

Small incremental changes

A/B or multivariate testing possible (e.g. with Google’s Website Optimizer)

ACT 3: some current evolutions

CRM / behavioral targeting

From web-analytics to data-driven (online) marketing:

Behavioral targeting

E.g. Omniture bought Touch Clarity last year

E.g. Out-of-the-box techniques in CMS “Fatwire’

Integration with CRM and BI:

Open architecture of most commercial tools

Campaign / bid management

Bid and campaign management is getting bigger and bigger:

E.g. Webtrends, StormOptimizer, Tradedoubler

Even CMS vendors integrate with campaign management tools

E.g. MediaSurface and Alterian

Benchmark

Benchmarking information:

Google

Market research companies

Gives you insight in:

Reach

Name recognition

Appreciation

Tells you where you are compared to the competition

Thank you! [email_address] +32 475 567 890 [email_address] +32 486 134 138 www.internetarchitects.be

Integrating web analysis in the user experience design process

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