Optimal Blog

Every month we have fun and informative “bite sized” presentations to add some inspiration to your lunch break.  These virtual events allow us to partner with amazing speakers, community groups and organizations to share their insights and hot takes on a variety of topics impacting our industry. 

Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Sarah Pulis

Annotating designs with accessibility information is a powerful way to focus on accessibility in the design phase, as well as communicate your accessibility decisions to others in your team.

In this presentation, Sarah will talk about why accessibility annotations are useful, what they can be used for and how you can use popular design tools such as Figma to document accessibility requirements.

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Speaker Bio

Sarah is co-founder and director at Intopia. She has been working in accessibility and inclusive design for 13 years. She has a breadth of knowledge and experience helping organisations create more inclusive digital products and services. One minute she may be talking with senior leadership about strategic accessibility programs, the next she is getting technical with designers and developers. She is also affectionately known as the walking WCAG by her team.

Sarah is an extremely passionate accessibility advocate. She is founder of A11y Bytes and A11y Camp, Australia’s largest accessibility and inclusive design events which supports the sharing of knowledge and community connection.

Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n' Learn

Optimal Workshop, a leading provider of User Research and Information Architecture tools, is pleased to announce the appointment of Anne Ting to its board of directors. Ting, who is currently the Chief Design Officer at Totango, brings a wealth of expertise in design and user experience to the Optimal Workshop team.

“We’re so excited to have Anne join our board,” said Andrew Mayfield, CEO of Optimal Workshop. “We are confident that she will make a significant contribution to the company's future success and that her unique perspective will be instrumental in shaping the company's culture and values.”

Ting has over 20 years of experience in marketing, operations and design. At Totango, she is responsible for leading go-to-market, research, and user experience across web, product, and the entire customer journey. Prior to joining Totango, Ting held senior roles at several technology companies, including Unity and Wishlife, where she was responsible for operations, growth and customer success. 

"I am thrilled to join the board of directors for Optimal Workshop. The company is dedicated to empowering designers and researchers around the world to create better digital experiences, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to help drive their mission forward," said Anne Ting, Chief Design Officer at Totango.

About Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop is a user research platform that gathers fast, actionable insights necessary for understanding user needs and making informed decisions. Our superior analysis tools, testing methods and participant recruitment options increase efficiency and empower teams to deliver customer focused solutions. Our products have created value for a diverse range of roles including UX designers and researchers, content strategists, information architects, and more. Learn more about how we can help you create better user experiences today!

If you're more of a visual person, you can watch a 20 minute talk which explains how to use the narrative arc in your in-person research.

The power of stories

Stories are powerful things. You don’t need me to tell you that! You’ve probably read a book, seen a play, a film or a TV series and thought: “Man*, that was brilliant! The way they drew all those threads together in that last scene. I was totally with them!”

We’ve been telling each other stories for millennia - they were the way we explained the world around us as well as the way in which we entertained ourselves.

From an early age, the logic of stories is hard-wired into our minds through repetition. This is why, two thirds of the way through a story you have a fair idea of where things are headed and can take a good guess at what is going to happen in the end.

*Except you didn't say 'Man', as you aren't as old as me.

The narrative arc

In 1863 Freytag developed this pyramid which he used to explain what was happening in stories:

• EXPOSITION: The characters, the context are introduced
• INCITING INCIDENT: Something happens to begin the action
• RISING ACTION: The story builds
• STORY CLIMAX: The point of greatest tension
• FALLING ACTION: Events that happen as a result of the climax
• RESOLUTION: The problem is wrapped up and solved
• DENOUEMENT: The end, what happens to our characters

Many, many stories follow this arc; they may miss off the exposition or skip the resolution but they will have that story climax where all the threads come together.

The narrative arc in in-person research

So, the narrative arc is interesting, but how does it relate to in-person research? How does knowing the plot of Little Red Riding Hood help you become a better researcher?

The problem with in-person research

In-person research can be very nerve-wracking for you and for your participants.

I’ve seen people conducting interviews who know what they want to find out get lost in futile questions having taken the wrong turn, or ‘spoiling’ an interview by revealing too much about the subject or mentioning it too soon.

Participants can also find interviews nerve-wracking. They might struggle to understand the context of questioning and may feel they have ‘done a bad job’ as they haven’t given useful answers. As apparently random questions come at them, they can feel off balance and concerned. The whole experience can start to feel like a police interview*. There’s no thread for them to follow.

*Real police interviews are not like they are shown on TV. Real police interviews are thorough, repetitive, detailed and rational. No shouting or table-tipping.

Let’s look at the steps in the narrative arc and how they apply to an in-person research situation.

Exposition

Start the story by introducing the characters - yourself and who else is in attendance but also give the participant the chance to say something about themselves.

Give a little backstory or context about the research - not so much that you ‘give away the plot.’ Explain ‘why we’re here’, let the participant answer some really simple questions so that they can get some 'runs on the board' and get over any nerves.

Inciting incident

Ask the first question that gets things moving. Usually something that lets the participant give their context. For example, “Tell me about the last time you…”

Rising action

Here’s where you can ask questions that build on each other and let the participant really expand on their story. Your job is to guide them towards the story climax which is where you hit them with your most important question.

The trick in the rising action is to reduce the bias as much as you can by carefully ordering and phrasing the questions so that you don’t give away too much and so the participant can respond without feeling driven to an answer.

Climax

You've got your participant to the point where they have all of the context to answer your most important question or questions, so go ahead and ask them.

Strictly speaking in stories, you tend only to have one story climax. In your research you may have several, but not so many that the participant feels like a quote machine. The story climax is going to line up with the research objectives you set before you wrote your discussion guide. If it doesn’t, your research is not going to give you the insights you were looking for.

Falling action

Now that the cat's out of the bag, your participant will understand why you asked some of the questions in the rising action. Go ahead and give them the chance to reflect. You can also tie up those loose ends, things you skated over as they might color the key response: “So earlier, when I asked you about X you said Y. Tell me about that.”

Resolution

Every session ends with a final word from the participant. People like to ask the ‘what if you had a magic wand’ question, but I find it better to ask about people’s feelings towards something. Whether that’s an existing issue or a future opportunity.

Denouement

It’s a fancy French term for 'ending' and all sessions must have one. This is where you thank the participant for their time, give them their incentive, encourage them to reach out if they have further thoughts. For some participants, it's important as they may have all the time in the world and need to be given the right signals that ‘we’re done, thanks’!

Summary

Use the narrative arc to help you order your thoughts when you're writing your discussion guide and when running your sessions.

If your in-person session shows clear drive in a direction - has subtle guiding story cues - even if the participant doesn’t know exactly where you are heading, they will be able to contribute meaningfully. The arc of the story that you are both telling will provide enough context for them to answer each question you ask - at the point you ask it.

Furthermore, your participant will leave your session feeling good about the experience and your organization. It’s a win-win!

Are your users engaged in your website? The success of your website will largely depend on your answer. After all, engaged users are valuable users; they keep coming back and will recommend your site to colleagues, friends, and family. So, if you’re not sure if your users are engaged or not, consider looking into your user engagement metrics.

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User engagement can be measured using a number of key metrics provided by website analytics platforms. Metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and click-through rate all provide clues to user engagement and therefore overall website user experience.

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This article will help you understand user engagement and why it’s important to measure. We’ll also discuss how to apply user engagement insights to improve website success. Combining a little bit of data with some user research is a powerful thing, so let’s get into it.

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Understanding User Engagement Metrics 📐

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User engagement metrics provide valuable insight for both new and existing websites. They should be checked regularly as a sort of ‘pulse check’ for website user experience and performance. So, what metrics should you be looking at? Website metrics can be overwhelming; there are hundreds if not thousands to analyze, so let’s focus on three:

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Bounce rate

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Measures the percentage of users that visit just one page on your site before leaving. If your bounce rate is high it suggests that users aren’t finding the content relevant, engaging, or useful. It points to a poor initial reaction to your site and means that users are arriving, making a judgment about your design or content, and then leaving.

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Time on page

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Calculated by the time difference between the point when a person lands on the page and when they move on to the next one. It indicates how engaging or relevant individual pages on your website are. Low time on page figures suggest that users aren’t getting what they need from a certain page, either in terms of the content, the aesthetics, or both.

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Click-through rate

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Click-through rate compares the number of times someone clicks on your content, to the number of impressions you get (how many times an internal link or ad was viewed). The higher the rate, the better the engagement and performance of that element. User experience design can influence click-through rates through copywriting, button contrasts, heading structure, navigation, etc.

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Conversion rate

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Conversion rates are perhaps the pinnacle of user engagement metrics. Conversion rate is the percentage of users that perform specific tasks you define. They are therefore dictated by your goals, which could include form submissions, transactions, etc. If your website has high conversion rates, you can be fairly confident that your website is matching your users’ needs, requirements, and expectations.

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But how do these metrics help? Well, they don’t give you an answer directly. The metrics point to potential issues with website user experience. They guide further research and subsequent updates that lead to website improvement. In the next section, we’ll discuss how these and others can support better website user experiences.

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Identifying Areas for Improvement 💡

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So, you’ve looked at your website’s user engagement metrics and discovered some good, and some bad. The good news is, there’s value in discovering both! The catch? You just need to find it. Remember, the metrics on their own don’t give you answers; they provide you direction.

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The ‘clues’ that user engagement metrics provide are the starting point for further research. Remember, we want to make data-driven decisions. We want to avoid making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about why our website is reporting certain metrics. Fortunately, there are a bunch of different ways to do this.

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User research data can be gathered by using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Insights into user behavior and needs can reveal why your website might be performing in certain ways. Research can include both qualitative and quantitative techniques.

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Qualitative research techniques

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• Usability test – Test a product with people by observing them as they attempt to complete various tasks.
• User interview – Sit down with a user to learn more about their background, motivations and pain points.
• Contextual inquiry – Learn more about your users in their own environment by asking them questions before moving onto an observation activity.
• Focus group – Gather 6 to 10 people for a forum-like session to get feedback on a product.

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Quantitate research techniques

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• Card sorts – Find out how people categorize and sort information on your website.
• First-click tests – See where people click first when tasked with completing an action.
• A/B tests – Compare 2 versions of a design in order to work out which is more effective.
• Clickstream analysis – Analyze aggregate data about website visits.
• Tree-testing - Test your site structure using text-only categorization and labels

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The type of research depends on what question you want to answer. Being specific about your question will help you identify what research technique(s) to deploy and ultimately the quality of your answer. If you’re serious about website improvement; identify problem areas with user engagement metrics, and investigate how to fix them with user research.

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Optimizing Content and Design

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If you have conducted user research and found weak areas on your website, there are many things to consider. Three good places to start are navigation, content, and website layout. Combined, these have a huge impact on user experience and can be leveraged to address disappointing engagement metrics.

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Navigation

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Navigation is a crucial aspect of creating a good user experience since it fundamentally connects pages and content which allows users to find what they need. Navigation should be simple and easy to follow, with important information/actions at the top of menus. Observing the results of card sorting, tree testing, and user testing can be particularly useful in website optimization efforts. You may find that search bars, breadcrumb trails, and internal links can also help overcome navigation issues.

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Content

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Are users seeing compelling or relevant content when they arrive on your site? Is your content organized in a way that encourages further exploration? Card sorting and content audits are useful in answering these questions and can help provide you with the insights required to optimize your content. You should identify what content might be redundant, out of date, or repetitive, as well as any gaps that may need filling.

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Layout

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A well-designed layout can improve the overall usability of a website, making it easier for users to find what they're looking for, understand the content, and engage with it. Consider how consistent your heading structures are and be sure to use consistent styling throughout the site, such as similar font sizes and colors. Don’t be afraid to use white space; it’s great at breaking up sections and making content more readable.

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An additional factor related to layout is mobile optimization. Mobile-first design is necessary for apps, but it should also factor into your website design. How responsive is your website? How easy is it to navigate on mobile? Is your font size appropriate? You might find that poor mobile experience is negatively impacting user engagement metrics.

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Measuring Success 🔎

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User experience design is an iterative, ongoing process, so it’s important to keep a record of your website’s user experience metrics at various points of development. Fortunately, website analytics platforms will provide you with historic user data and key metrics; but be sure to keep a separate record of what improvements you make along the way. This will help you pinpoint what changes impacted different metrics.

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Define your goals and create a website optimization checklist that monitors key metrics on your site. For example, whenever you make an update, ensure bounce rates don’t exceed a certain number during the days following; check that your conversion rates are performing as they should be; check your time on sites hasn’t dropped. Be sure to compare metrics between desktop and mobile too.

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User’s needs and expectations change over time, so keep an eye on how new content is performing. For example, which new blog posts have attracted the most attention? What pages or topics have had the most page views compared to the previous period? Tracking such changes can help to inform what your users are currently engaged in, and will help guide your user experience improvements.

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Conclusion 🤗

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User engagement metrics allow you to put clear parameters around user experience. They allow you to measure where your website is performing well, and where your website might need improving. Their main strength is in how accessible they are; you can access key metrics on website analytics platforms in moments. However, user engagement metrics on their own may not reveal how and why certain website improvements should be made. In order to understand what’s going on, you often need to dig a little deeper.

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Time on page, bounce rate, click-through rate, and conversion rates are all great starting points to understand your next steps toward website improvement. Use them to define where further research may be needed. Not sure why your average pages per session is two? Try conducting first-click testing; where are they heading that seems to be a dead end? Is your bounce rate too high? Conduct a content audit to find out if your information is still relevant, or look into navigation roadblocks. Whatever the question; keep searching for the answer.

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User engagement metrics will keep you on your toes, but that’s a good thing. They empower you to make ongoing website improvements and ensure that users are at the heart of your website design. 

Click, click, click, BOOM! There it is. That thing you were looking for. You couldn’t find it on other websites, but you found it here, and it was easy. You feel like a hero. You thank the website and you leave with a sense of achievement.

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What if you could replicate that feeling on your website? What if you could make every user journey so satisfying? By combining information architecture and user flow, you can.

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But what are they and how are they different? In this article, we’ll explain how they influence website design and how you can (and should) use them together in your project. We’ll also discuss different user flow research techniques, how they inform great information architecture, and how it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming.

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What is Information Architecture? 🏗️

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Information architecture is the system and structure you use to organize and label content on your website, app or product. It relates closely to user experience design, but it’s slightly different. Think of it as the structure or framework upon which user-facing assets are built.

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That being the case, if your information architecture has flaws, your website design will have flaws. It determines how information will be accessible, usable and relevant on your website and should be treated as a critical element of your project. How can we ensure that we have our content organized efficiently to promote seamless interactions?

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The answer is research. Without research you’re just guessing. The problem with guessing is that, well, you’re guessing. You tend to organize, categorize and label things the way that you (and maybe your team) would organize things. It’s biassed and subjective. In reality, people process information in all sorts of different ways and good information architecture should reflect that. You’ll often hear us say ‘test early and test often’. This mantra helps to avoid any little niggles during the user experience design process. Card sorting and tree testing are a couple of techniques that you can use to test early.

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Card sorting is a research technique that asks users to categorize different pieces of information or content. It’s best used when you have specific, information-related questions. For example, you may want to categorize products in an online store in the most logical way. Or you may have a mountain of blog post categories that need refining. Whatever it is, the benefit of a card sort is that you end up with consensus of how your users expect to see information. Card sorts can even be performed remotely using tools such as OptimalSort.

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Tree testing examines how easy it is for your users to find information using a stripped back, text-only representation of your website - almost like a sitemap. Rather than asking users to sort information, they are asked to perform a navigation task, for example, “where would you find today’s best deals?”. Depending on how easy or difficult users find these tasks gives you a great indication of the strengths and weaknesses of your underlying site structure.

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As the base structure of your website or app, information architecture has a fundamental influence on how well users access and use your content. It makes sense then that when designing it, you should receive real-world user feedback early on in the piece. Fortunately, there are great online tools like Treejack to quickly and easily test your site structures, categorization and labels.

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What is User Flow? 🌊

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User flow describes the steps involved for a user to complete a certain task. It lays out what needs to happen for a user to get from starting point to a defined finish line. Why is it important? Because we want that journey to be as efficient as it can possibly be. If it’s not, the user will be left frustrated and dissatisfied, no matter how beautiful the website design is.

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At the heart of user flow is, you guessed it, the user. A path that seems obvious to designers might be confusing to an end-user. It’s important to distance yourself from the project and put yourself in the user's shoes. Even better - watch the user. How do they react to a fork in the road? How do they get back on track? Where are they stumbling?

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User testing is a great way to observe user flow. But what are you testing? Normally you test based on a user flow diagram. A user flow diagram is generated based on insights from your research from card sorting, tree testing, and questionnaires, for example. It visually outlines the possible paths a user can take to achieve a certain task. The basic structure of a user flow diagram considers the following:

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• A critical path
• Entry points
• User end goals
• Success metrics (time to completion, number of clicks)
• Steps the user will take in between

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Once you have created a user flow diagram you can test it with your users. User testing can be remote or in person and uses a variety of techniques depending on the constraints of your projects. You may consider testing something rough and conceptual like a paper prototype before producing more detailed prototypes.

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How to Use Information Architecture and User Flow Together 🤝🏻

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By doing the work upfront to create great information architecture you put yourself in a great position to create great user flow. After all, information architecture is designed based on user research. Performing content audits and creating content inventories help to inform early content decisions, followed by user research techniques such as card sorting and tree testing. This research has a direct influence on user flow, since information and content has been given meaning and structure.

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The foundational work in designing information architecture leads to user flow diagrams which, as we discussed, are helpful tools in creating seamless user flow. They bridge the gap between information architecture and final user experience by visualizing pathways of specific tasks. By performing user tests on prototypes, the researcher will inevitably find speed bumps, which may highlight flaws in information architecture.

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Information architecture and user flow are integrated. This means there should be a constant feedback loop. Early research and categorisation when building information architecture may not translate to seamless user flow in practice. This could be due to integration factors outside of the digital ecosystem you’re designing.

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User flow and information architecture are complementary components of creating exceptional website design. Designers should make a conscious decision to apply both in synchrony.

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To Sum it Up 🧾

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Understanding the relationship between information architecture and user flow is important for any website design. Information architecture provides the organization and structure of content, where user flow applies that structure to how users execute certain tasks in the simplest possible way. The two are intertwined and, when used effectively, provide a framework to ensure seamless, user-friendly website design.

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User research and user testing heavily influence the design of both information architecture and user flow. We want users to feel a sense of accomplishment rather than frustration when using a website. Achieving this requires an investment in understanding user needs and goals, and how they consume and categorize information. This is where research techniques such as content audits, tree testing, card sorting and user testing become invaluable.

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We’ve always placed high value on solid research, but don’t be put off by it. The research techniques we’ve discussed are highly scalable, and you can be as involved as you want or need to be. Sometimes you don’t even have to be in the same room! The most important thing is to get outside of your team’s bubble and gain real user insight. Check out our information architecture services to ensure you’re on the right path towards powerful, user-centric website design.

User experience (UX) is the pointy end of website design. Great UX validates a lot of hard work behind the scenes, but poor UX will quickly render it useless. Why? Users are becoming more and more impatient. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, or interactions aren’t intuitive, they’ll simply leave as quickly as they arrive. What’s worse? They probably won’t come back! Thankfully, many businesses are recognizing the importance of great user experience and its influence on website performance.

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In this article, we’ll cover 4 key UX metrics to measure the success of your website performance: bounce rate, time on site, pages per session, and conversion rate. Captured by website analytics platforms, these metrics provide you with a high-level understanding of how well users are engaging with your website, and where you might be able to improve user experience. We’ll also look at the roles of navigation, content, and the customer journey, and how they impact overall website performance.

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Bounce Rate 🏀

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If a user bounces on a trampoline, they’re probably having fun. If they’re bouncing on your website, they’re probably having the opposite of fun. Let’s discuss bounce rate, and why it’s such a good indicator of why your users aren’t having much fun.

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Bounce rate is a UX metric that measures the percentage of users that visit just one page on your site before leaving. Essentially they arrive and they might scroll, but they don’t click anywhere; they simply leave. A high bounce rate means that a lot of people are doing this. Why is this (usually) a bad thing? Generally speaking, you want users to be so engaged in the page they landed on that they stay and have a look around. You want them to explore your other content, maybe fill in a form, watch a video, etc.

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There are a bunch of ways to improve your bounce rate, but there are two key things you should consider if you’re experiencing a high bounce rate:

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1. Content - Are users seeing compelling or relevant content when they arrive on your site? Are they seeing additional recommendations for content? Is your content organized in a way that encourages further exploration? Content is king. Ensure your users see the information they want, need and expect.
2. Page load speed - Is your page loading too slowly? Think of your own experiences with websites. It’s hard to argue with the fact that we’re becoming more and more demanding online. Too slow? Too bad. We move off to the next website. Check page load speed and improve where necessary to remove it as a barrier to engagement.
3. Navigation - Is your navigation intuitive enough to guide your user through your website? Analyze the structure of your menus and in-page links. Do the labels make sense? Have they been categorized appropriately?

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Bounce rates give you a strong indication of what your users' first impressions are of your website. You’ll need to dig deeper to find out the cause of high bounce rates, but it’s certainly worthwhile. Use the 3 elements mentioned above as your starting point.

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As a final note on bounce rates, we want to point out that there are exceptions where high bounce rates might not directly relate to poor user engagement. For example, users may arrive at a blog post that contains everything they wanted to know. This usually happens if you're generating traffic to a specific page from social media or search engines. However, if your home page has a high bounce rate, for example, you’ll want to investigate. So, be sure to keep bounce rate metrics in context.

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Time on Site ⏰

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In addition to bounce rate, you should find out how long users are sticking around in general. Time on site is the next logical UX metric to analyze. The longer users spend on your site, the more confident you can be that you’re providing exceptional user engagement and experience.

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Keep an eye on the following metrics to gauge time on site and website performance:

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• Average session duration - This is the total time that all users spend on your website divided by the total number of sessions. A session is defined as the entire time a person spends on your website. Therefore, a high average session duration figure indicates high engagement in the content on your website.
• Time on page - Calculated by the time difference between the point when a person lands on the page and when they move on to the next one. It indicates how engaging or relevant individual pages on your website are.

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So, armed with these metrics, what should we look for to improve website performance? Well, firstly you should look for some benchmarks. How are you performing compared to other sites in your industry? How do time on page figures compare with each other? For example, if some of your pages are getting over 5 minutes of time-on-page and others are getting 20 seconds, there’s a disparity between how useful, engaging, or relevant the content is.

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Even if your website is performing well, we recommend analyzing your time on site metrics to understand where improvements could be made. A great place to start is a content audit. This pulls together data from all of your content into one place where you can analyze what is redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT analysis). What’s driving engagement? What information isn’t adding value? Overlapping this audit with time on page figures can reveal extremely useful insights into how you can improve user experience by providing the most useful content.

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You should also shine a light on your navigation. If users can’t find their way through your content, they’re not going to stick around. Can you streamline your navigation? Can you order your content from most to least relevant to better meet user needs? Are some menus confusingly labeled? Improve your website performance by taking a critical look at the factors that influence time on page.

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Pages per Session 📄

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Pages per session calculate the average number of pages on your website that users access per session. It is calculated by taking the total page views and dividing it by the total number of sessions that have taken place across the same period.

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Pages per session is an important UX metric to track because it reveals how relevant and ‘explorable’ your website is. The higher the figure, the more pages your users are visiting during their stay, and the more engaged they’re likely to be. As we highlighted earlier with bounce rate, users will quickly leave if they’re not finding what they want. Therefore, in general, if users are sticking around, it’s a good indication you’re providing a good user experience.

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How can you increase pages per session? Firstly, provide useful, relevant content at every turn. No matter where your users may land on your website, they should be satisfied and gratified. All going well, this initial content will leave them thirsty for more. This is another great reason to perform regular content audits - to critically analyze the type of content that makes up your site.

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But great content doesn’t automatically mean great user experiences. User engagement might be high, but how are they getting between pages? How easily are they getting from one part of your site to the next? This is where navigation comes to the fore. And whilst menus and sub-menus are obviously important, we want to highlight call-to-actions and internal links.

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Cleverly placed call-to-actions and internal links pull users along. They sit there within the content (or below the content) urging them to learn more and search more. A good example of this is ‘related articles’ at the end of a blog. Of course, the key is that they should be relevant. Disrupting the user’s journey with something unrelated could put them off, rather than retain them. This is particularly true for call-to-action buttons - they should be visible and attractive, but not so much as to obstruct the user.

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It’s important to remember the goal of your website. Good UX is great, but there’s no point aiming for the highest page per session figures unless you’re getting conversions. Which, incidentally, is our next subject.

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Conversion Rate 📊

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Tracking conversion rate is the ultimate test of user experience design. Of course, there are a lot of factors involved in conversion rate, so we’ll focus on which elements of UX design can have the most impact.

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Conversion rate is the percentage of users that perform specific tasks you define. Conversion rates are therefore dictated by your goals, and in most cases, will include things like transactions, newsletter sign-ups, phone calls, completing contact forms, or downloading a white paper. Why are conversion rates important to track? Well, your website is a machine for [insert your purpose here]! In many cases, we simply want to increase sales or leads.

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There are a few ways to increase conversion rates. Firstly, if you haven’t already, review or build your customer journey map. Customer journey mapping is a technique used to help you visualize your customer’s key touchpoints, sentiments, pain points, and actions. It helps you understand how your user gets from awareness of your product/brand/website, right through to conversion. Every customer journey is slightly different, which is why it’s so important to understand. Fail to understand your customer and it will be glaringly obvious in your user experience design.

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Customer journey mapping leads nicely to your value proposition. Do you have it clearly defined? What is your point of difference? How is it being communicated? Whilst encouraging a user to explore and engage in your website is great, some users may be time-poor. Could you speed up the consumption of your information? Trial a short video on your home page or landing page, for example. You may find that it increases engagement and conversion rates.

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Increasing conversion rates can also be achieved by reducing navigation friction. Make call-to-action buttons obvious and easy to find. Ensure the readability of buttons and text. Perhaps your forms could be optimized, for example, you may want to reduce the number of fields required, or you could embed forms at the bottom of key pages, reducing the chance of clicking away. Form optimization can be a simple yet effective way of improving conversion rates.

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Conclusion 💥

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Tracking UX metrics is an ongoing task that ensures you’re meeting the needs of your users. As your users’ needs, demands, and expectations change, so should your website design. One of the easiest ways to do this is to keep track of your UX metrics for website performance.

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Bounce rate, time on site, pages per session, and conversion rates are some of the most revealing metrics. Collectively, they highlight user engagement levels on your website and give strong indications of where your UX design is meeting expectations, or where it’s falling short.

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The key strength of these metrics depends on how you interpret them. You may need to dig deeper into why certain aspects of your site aren’t performing well. Implement some of the research techniques mentioned in this article, like content audits or customer journey mapping, to find clues to the answer. The answers could very well lead to a significant boost in website performance!