March 8, 2024
6
minutes
In the previous articles, we have covered most of the UX research methodologies, but we have not yet discussed one important type of tool, analytics. Website analytics is very important as it helps to support other research findings with figures or visuals. There are many free and paid tools available for this. Here are some of them.
Data-driven analytics software
Beyond the analytics for your own website, the best known and most widely used free software is Google Universal Analytics. It is mostly used for marketing analytics, to optimise the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. But there are many more ways to interpret the data! From a UX/UI point of view, it is very important to know, for example, where each visitor came to the site from, from which platform, how much time they spend on average on the subpages, where the drop-out rate is the highest and which routes users take to reach the final destination. It is also a great help for a designer to know on which device and what resolution the site is viewed most often. This kind of data can help highlight performance and design issues. Analytics can provide a fairly large amount of data for finding user-friendly features, developing an effective strategy or conducting a comprehensive UX audit.
But what if someone has an app?
Here too, there is a wide range of software to choose from. The most popular is Google's free software, Firebase. The biggest difference between Google Universal Analytics and Firebase is the measurement method, while the first one measures sessions, Firebase measures events. For example, how many times an app has been downloaded, how many times an action has been opened or performed, etc.
What if you have both a website and an app?
The solution is Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a new free software from Google that will take over the role of Google Universal Analytics from 1 July 2023. Its big advantage will be the ability to manage data from the website and the app in one interface. In addition, as they have standardised the measurement method (it will measure events for the website as well), we will be able to easily interpret both types of measurement, centralising them into one statistical table.
Visual analytics software
In addition to numerical data, we can also collect visual data. One of the favourite methods for UX professionals is the heatmap test. With this method, we can track where and how much interaction happens on a given page (how many times a button is clicked, which part of the page is viewed most often). Using the analytics, we can filter out pages where something is stuck, and visually see these problems with the heatmap method. In addition, we can complement this with recording tools that capture the user's movements and clicks on a given website. They help us to get more complex results about user problems, possible design and other errors. Most software handles these two methods together, such as Clarity, Microsoft's own free software. Or many people opt for Hotjar, which is paid but has many more features, with a mini questionnaire pop-up tool alongside the heatmap and recording solutions. The disadvantage of Hotjar is that it is subscription-based. But it is worth mentioning SmartLook, which works in a similar way to Hotjar.
To sum up, it is worth using both analytical analysis and visual software at the same time to get a complete picture of the website's performance shortcomings or the degradation of the user experience.
How does this happen at 22.design?
Over the years, we have learned that it is not enough to design and develop a website or an application, but it is important to have a follow-up. That's why we created the UX Tracking methodology. This is a regular, comprehensive analysis at certain intervals that ensures the tracking of what is happening on the website, to identify any stumbling blocks.
The essence of the UX tracking package is analytical analysis alongside UX research methods. In this section, we look at the basic website or mobile application functionality, the different conversion processes. We will make recommendations on which analytical tools to implement and which settings to use. Based on the results, insights and "eureka points" obtained during the UX tracking, we will create minor or major design variations, which will be A/B tested and measured continuously. From this, we can see the rate of improvement and the increase in conversion rates as a result of the changes.
After the review of the amendments, there is a new scrutiny phase, followed by another proposal for amendments, and then the review again. Thanks to this cyclical approach, we can keep up with current trends and the website or app will not be outdated in 2 years!