As part of our ongoing Breakfast Session series, we invited Luke Hay, Natasha Popoola and Tom Prior to talk about creating valuable user experiences. Here’s some of their insights:
At this session, we discussed how you can use analytics and the Kano Model tool to make data-driven decisions and create delightful user experiences. We spoke about the ways to improve the user experience, conversion rate and customer satisfaction of websites and apps and how to prioritise investment in new features.
First stop: UX and analytics
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” W. Edwards Deming.
Taking an analytics-first approach to UX means you are using quantitative evidence to back up your user research, focusing on facts, numbers and user behaviours.
This approach to UX can help you troubleshoot issues; by looking closely at the analytics of your product, you can identify areas that need improvements. For example, are you reaching the right demographic? Are users getting lost on your site and returning to the homepage after a search? Analyse the behaviours of your users and take actions. Then come back to the analytics and see if anything has changed.
Another way to troubleshoot issues is to analyse user’s behaviour and see where you fit with your competitors using benchmark reports. Are you getting fewer mobile visitors than your competitors? Then maybe you should think about revamping your mobile site.
Analytics should also be the starting point for most, if not all forms of user research. Google analytics hold precious data about your audience: country, language, age, gender, device ownership, browser choice, content of interest, time of browsing. Use them to frame your diary studies, user interviews, focus groups, user surveys, personas or usability testing.
Second Stop: The Kano Model and feature investment
The Kano Model is named after Japanese researcher Noriaki Kano. He devised a model for categorising product features that would help business focus their investment. Applied to digital products, the Kano Model can help you:
- Overcome experience rot, which is when your product has become overloaded with features
- Decide how much effort you should put into the various facets of your product
- Tidy up an over-crowded backlog of features
The Kano Model evaluates feature investment and customer satisfaction by categorising features into four areas:
- Basic Expectations: they’re essential to your product and customers will be frustrated if they are absent, but you will get low satisfaction returns for extra-investment.
- Satisfiers or performance features: These are the core features of your offering, execute them well and you’ll see a higher level of user satisfaction.
- Neutrals: Customers are indifferent to their inclusion or exclusion, they are often over-invested in and under-validated. They’re the key area of product bloat, learn to say no to them.
- Delighters: they differentiate you from competition, they’re a pleasant surprise, customers won’t know they need them. They offer a high level of satisfaction for low investment.
Note on features:
All delighters become basic expectation over time. Using the Kano model involves an ongoing process of product discovery, which puts user satisfactions at the heart of product development. Don’t over-invest in delighters, add them to your product and keep testing.
Why it matters
These strategies help you identify what your website or product needs based on facts. They can help you troubleshoot issues, set KPIs, get rid of features you don’t need or include new features.
The key to good design and UX is empathy, being good at listening and not rushing to build solutions. You can cut through the noise of opinions to inform your UX research with quantitative facts such as analytics and the Kano Model. Keep an ear out for what you customer want, test new features as you go and you will no doubt create delightful user experiences that your customers will return to.
More about the speakers:
Luke Hay is a UX Consultant and Google Analytics Trainer and Senior Conversion Strategist at Fresh Egg. Luke is also the author of Researching UX: Analytics, you can find more info about his book here.
Natasha Popoola is a Senior UX Researcher and Designer at Makemedia and Tom Prior a Director of Design and UX at Makemedia. They shared their insights on using the Kano Model, you can read more on Makemedia’s blog here.
Interested in speaking at one of our Breakfast Sessions? Get in touch with Virginie at virginie@wiredsussex.com to find out more.