How to Prioritize Your UX Metrics for Business Success

Nearly every business function has countless things they can measure. In our data-flooded world, it's easy to get bogged down by the volume of data we have at our fingertips. If a team tracks all the numbers available, the focus becomes diluted. Everyone will have their own thoughts about which numbers are most critical to success, and that fractures the priorities of a UX design project.

UX metrics provide a framework for evaluating performance using a combination of interactions and perceptions. Interactions measure what people do, while perceptions measure how people think and feel.

UX metric development is just like any other business activity, and we measure success by the numbers. We also use qualitative data since many aspects of customer experience are tied to emotions. We find UX metrics by taking a baseline measurement and then tracking these numbers after release.

Having a team-wide consensus on the goals and a narrow set of metrics to match is best. Common objectives UX can contribute to include customer satisfaction, loyalty, innovation, new product growth, efficiency, and profitability.

In general, UX designers break down their metrics into three priority levels. Priority one represents those critical indicators of company-wide goals in which UX has a hand in. Priority two metrics are more focused on user experience. Priority three indicators have a much smaller impact on the product and company, although they may feed into priority two.

The most important metrics in UX depend on the company's goals, the stage of the project, and the UX project itself.

For prototypes, it's best to focus on usability metrics from scientific surveys. Some of the metrics to track include:

• Success rate
• Task completion time
• Error rate
• Subjective satisfaction

For final products, apps, and websites, the critical metrics fall into five categories:

1. Happiness: Customer satisfaction can be measured on a 1-5 scale, a yes or no binary, or a 10-point net promoter score (NPS).
2. Engagement: If you rely on engaged users, measure the frequency, intensity, or depth of interaction.
3. Adoption: When focused on growth, it's helpful to measure the adoption of a new product. It's usually expressed as the number of new users gained over seven days. You can also measure the utility or desirability of a new feature by measuring the percentage of customers who use it.
4. Retention: As the saying goes, it's more efficient to keep an existing customer than earn a new one. Most companies track the rate at which users return or at which they do not return.
5. Task success: The most traditional UX metrics center on whether a product does what users need it to do. Typical metrics include time to complete the task or error rate. You can also measure how many people can find a feature or page through the navigation versus those who need to use search.

Which categories you measure depend on the goals of your UX. For example, engagement might not be necessary if you aim for the most efficient product. A rideshare app doesn't want a user spending fifteen minutes hailing a cab. Their goal is focused on ensuring users can catch a ride with as little effort as possible so users want to use it again.

How does your team decide what to focus on when gauging success? First, it helps to set targets. To find the best goals for your specific project, follow these steps:

1. Set goals: To keep your metrics list lean, first build a consensus on goals first. Which company-wide goals will the UX project be able to address? What business value will the new product or feature add? These are the objectives to emphasize.

2. Find indicators: Which signals align with particular goals? Are they measurable? For example, signs of retention can fit into a customer loyalty goal. Analyze the data your company tracks to see which indicators best suit your project's purpose.

3. Identify metrics: Make them measurable. Once you have your essential indicators, make them measurable. Engagement can translate into the "number of minutes spent in-app" for some apps, while others might measure engagement by the second. Try to focus only on the metrics that directly impact your goals.

These steps should naturally rank your UX metrics. Your high-priority metrics go with your top goals, and these will be the most crucial to analyze. Avoid non-essential stats. You only need to focus on those that will help you make strategic decisions.

Blink helps clients identify and prioritize UX metrics based on the project's goals. These recommendations are informed by foundational research and help drive design decisions. Blink also helps clients measure benchmarks and progress over time through ongoing evaluative research.

Our team of researchers and analysts comes from various backgrounds and industries. They will help you determine the best way to define success and the methods for collecting that data.

Our approach to UX metrics balances quantitative and qualitative data. Blink researchers use several techniques and best practices to ensure high data quality. Recent UX metrics projects include:

• Usability study to assess the accessibility of a product to vision-impaired users
• Analysis of product telemetry data to determine the next iteration
• Web analytics implementation plan for a B2B SaaS company

Like with everything we do, the Blink team takes a custom approach to your UX metrics. We look at your project and company's strategic goals to measure everything you want to manage. Intelligent prioritization allows a UX product to excel and become the most satisfying version of itself.

Let our firm set your prioritized UX metrics straight, measure them using our scientific approach, and out-deliver on your goals.