{"id":7850,"date":"2023-02-01T14:44:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T14:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/?p=7850"},"modified":"2024-02-21T15:36:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T15:36:23","slug":"tracking-ux-kpis-guide-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/tracking-ux-kpis-guide-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking UX kpis for better design: A guide for designers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a UX designer, one (major) aspect of your role is to make the end users happy. The second (also major) aspect is to provide value to the business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But how do you connect the two? And, perhaps most importantly, how do you demonstrate\u2014in concrete terms\u2014that all your good UX work has a direct impact on the company\u2019s success?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer lies in UX KPIs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KPIs (or key performance indicators) allow you to measure and track certain aspects of the user experience. This gives you hard data to work with, providing great insight into the overall health of your product\u2019s UX <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">connecting that to wider business goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If UX design KPIs are unfamiliar territory, you\u2019ve come to the right place. In this beginner-friendly guide, we explain:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"#what-are-kpis\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are KPIs?<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"#what-are-ux-design-kpis\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are UX design KPIs?<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"#whats-the-difference\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behavioural vs. attitudinal KPIs: What\u2019s the difference?<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"#why-do-we-need-kpis-in-ux-design\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why do we need KPIs in UX design?\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"#how-to-use-kpis\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to use KPIs to improve the user experience (and meet business goals)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And, in a follow-up article, we identify the most important UX KPIs you should be tracking (and show you how to do so). But for now, let\u2019s start from the beginning\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"promotion\" class=\"promotion-content-raw inlinepromo inlinepromo_professional-diploma-in-ux-designp-1 my-4\" style=\"\">\n\t<div class=\"w-container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-12 promotion-info\">\n                <a class=\"link-content\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/courses\/ux-design?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog_panel_pdux&utm_campaign=blog_promo\" style=\"\">\n                    <p>[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]<\/p>\n                    <span>Take our Professional Diploma in UX Design course<\/span>\n                <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-are-kpis\"><strong>What are KPIs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><b>KPI stands for \u2018key performance indicator\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In business, KPIs provide an objective, quantifiable measure of progress towards a particular goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, a popular KPI for email marketers is open rate\u2014how many recipients actually open the email. Sales professionals might track KPIs such as conversion rate (what percentage of leads actually turn into sales?) and cost per lead (how much money does it cost the company to generate leads?)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through regularly measuring KPIs, you can see if you\u2019re on target to achieve your overall objectives by a certain point in time\u2014or if you need to change course. As the name suggests, they give you an indication of your performance so far, allowing you to either keep going or rethink your strategy for success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-are-ux-design-kpis\"><strong>What are UX design KPIs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX design KPIs translate subjective user experiences into objective data. They help to capture, in numbers, how quickly and easily the overall design allows the user to complete their desired tasks, as well as how enjoyable the experience is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some examples of UX design KPIs include:<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>User error rate: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The user error rate measures how many mistakes a user makes when completing a certain task. For example, if they are filling out a sign-up form, they might enter their date of birth incorrectly. If they\u2019re looking for a specific piece of information, they might accidentally navigate to the wrong page. This KPI gives you insight into how user-friendly your design is, and helps you to identify pain-points.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Task success rate: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This measures the percentage of users who are able to successfully complete a particular task. For example, you might deem the task of signing up to be completed once the user hits \u2018submit\u2019 on their registration form. Measuring task success rate allows you to gauge the usability of your designs.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Time-on-task: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The time-on-task KPI measures how long it takes users to complete a given task. Usually, a shorter time-on-task indicates efficiency\u2014enabled by high usability. If it takes users longer than expected to complete a task, there may be some usability issues that need fixing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, UX KPIs hone in on certain aspects of the user experience to provide insight into the overall usability of the product and how it makes the user feel. Those are just a few examples\u2014we outline all <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the most important UX KPIs (and how to measure them) in this guide<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"whats-the-difference\"><strong>Behavioural vs. attitudinal KPIs: What\u2019s the difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When measuring UX design KPIs, it\u2019s important to distinguish between <\/span><b>behavioural KPIs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>attitudinal KPIs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Behavioural UX KPIs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">measure what the users actually do and how they behave. For example, if you were looking at the KPI \u2018time-on-task\u2019, you\u2019d be measuring how long it takes users to complete a certain action. This would be based on them actually performing the task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Attitudinal UX KPIs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, on the other hand, track what users say and how they report feeling either during or after an interaction with your product. An example of an attitudinal KPI for UX might be net promoter score (NPS) which asks the user to say, on a scale from 0 to 10, how likely they would be to recommend the product to a friend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a bit like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/what-is-user-research\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">user research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> data which can be gathered either through observing the user\u2019s actions directly or asking them to talk about an experience and how it made them feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"promotion\" class=\"promotion-content-raw inlinepromo inlinepromo_professional-certificate-in-content-designp-1 my-4\" style=\"\">\n\t<div class=\"w-container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-12 promotion-info\">\n                <a class=\"link-content\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/courses\/content-design?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog_panel_text&utm_campaign=blog_promo\" style=\"\">\n                    <p>[GET CERTIFIED IN CONTENT DESIGN]<\/p>\n                    <span>Take our Professional Certificate in Content Design course<\/span>\n                <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<h2 id=\"why-do-we-need-kpis-in-ux-design\"><strong>Why do we need KPIs in UX design?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX design is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/business-needs-and-user-needs\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a balancing act between business and user needs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The goal is to create useful, enjoyable experiences for the end user while also meeting certain business objectives. Without KPIs, it can be difficult not only to evaluate the user experience on an ongoing basis, but also to directly link the UX team\u2019s work to the achievement of business goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, measuring UX-related KPIs has benefits for the end user, the business, and the UX design team themselves. Measuring KPIs in UX helps you to:<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Get stakeholder buy-in and secure the budget you need<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Quantify and demonstrate the value you bring to the organisation<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Keep a health check on your product\u2019s UX<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Improve your UX strategy<\/b><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Achieve UX maturity in your organisation<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s explore these benefits in more detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>KPIs help UX designers to get stakeholder buy-in (and budget)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a UX designer, you know <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/the-value-of-ux-design\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the value of UX design<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But, without concrete, objective data, it can be difficult to get buy-in from decision-makers or secure the budget you need to move forward with UX initiatives. Tracking KPIs and showing how your UX work ties in with specific business goals should make it easier to demonstrate the value of UX and put forward a strong case for your needs as a team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>They allow you to quantify the value you bring to the organisation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to getting stakeholder buy-in, being able to tie your UX work to measurable value is important for your own career. If you can show, through KPIs, that you\u2019ve contributed to an overall improvement in the user experience\u2014and therefore to the achievement of business goals\u2014you can advocate for yourself in performance reviews and job interviews alike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>KPIs enable you to keep a health check on your product\u2019s UX<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you keep track of certain KPIs on a regular basis, you\u2019ll get ongoing insight into how your product is performing. You\u2019ll spot problem areas and pain-points quickly, allowing you to make improvements continuously and reactively. This is much better for the overall \u2018health\u2019 of your product\u2019s UX compared to, say, waiting til the end of the year to conduct a major UX audit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tracking KPIs will improve your UX strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ongoing performance measurement doesn\u2019t only allow you to promptly address issues. It also gives you an overview of your UX progress over time, which in turn helps you to evaluate the effectiveness of your overarching UX strategy. You can look back over the last six or twelve months and assess whether or not things are moving in the right strategic direction. You can learn more about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/ux-strategy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX strategy (and how to define one) in this guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>KPIs are a key step towards UX maturity\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/recognise-ux-maturity-job-hunting\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX maturity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> describes how committed an organisation is to UX design. Companies with higher levels of UX maturity tend to allocate sufficient resources to UX initiatives, use data to drive design decisions, and are generally prone to putting the customer\/end user first. The more \u2018mature\u2019 a company is in their adoption of UX, the better equipped they are to provide excellent user experiences (and reap the business benefits). Starting to identify, track, and act upon design KPIs and data will move you closer to the higher echelons of UX maturity\u2014which is good news for you, your team, your end users, and the business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-use-kpis\"><strong>How to use KPIs for better UX<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We now know what KPIs are and why they\u2019re so important for UX design. So where do you begin? <\/span><b>Here\u2019s how to get started with tracking KPIs for better UX<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>1. Identify the most meaningful UX KPIs for your product<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are lots of KPIs you could use to measure and track UX, but not all of them will tell a meaningful story about your product. Before you decide which UX metrics to track, think first and foremost about how you are defining a good user experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To do this, we recommend using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.appcues.com\/blog\/google-improves-user-experience-with-heart-framework\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s HEART framework<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HEART stands for different aspects of the user experience you might want to measure: <\/span><b>Happiness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Engagement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Adoption<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Retention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>Task success<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Choose which of these elements are most important for your product and then define the KPIs you\u2019ll measure accordingly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if it\u2019s important that users are able to complete certain tasks quickly, you might focus on the \u2018task success\u2019 pillar, tracking KPIs such as time-on-task and user error rate. If the goal of your product is to keep users engaged\u2014for example, an educational app where you want to encourage users to spend at least 15 minutes a day learning via the app\u2014you might focus on the \u2018engagement\u2019 pillar, tracking KPIs such as average session length and session frequency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7851\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-01-at-14.12.48.png\" alt=\"Google HEART Framework examples\" width=\"1278\" height=\"1106\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/clevertap.com\/blog\/google-heart-framework\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CleverTap<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>2. Tie your UX KPIs to business KPIs<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve determined which UX KPIs you\u2019ll track, connect them to specific business goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if you\u2019re measuring user engagement with KPIs such as average session length and session frequency, what does this mean for the business? Perhaps it can directly be related to the customer lifetime value (CLV).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re looking at task success with KPIs such as time-on-task and user error rate, you could equate this to an increase in revenue (through, for example, more successful purchases made possible through good UX).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may need to collaborate with other teams to understand what business KPIs they\u2019re tracking and how your UX metrics contribute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>3. Always consider the wider context (and remain human-centric)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you become more data-driven, keep in mind that KPIs alone will rarely tell you the full story. It\u2019s important to consider the context surrounding each KPI and do any necessary digging to uncover the whole picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may look at the KPI \u2018task success rate\u2019 and see that an impressive 84% of users were able to complete the given task successfully. However, this doesn\u2019t automatically mean that all of these users had a positive user experience in the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maybe your customer satisfaction rating is miserably low, pointing to an issue that your task success rate KPI isn\u2019t highlighting. This should prompt you to conduct further research and testing\u2014perhaps with a focus on interviews to hear users\u2019 thoughts and feelings about the task in question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal is to use data and KPIs to guide you while bearing in mind that humans are complicated. Don\u2019t necessarily take each individual KPI at face value, and certainly don\u2019t shy away from further investigation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Using KPIs for better UX: The takeaway<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our increasingly data-driven world, tracking the right KPIs will allow you to refine your UX strategy and gain deeper, ongoing insight into how your end users interact with\u2014and enjoy\u2014your product. And, as a designer, a data-driven approach makes it possible to quantify the value you bring to the business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as you remain human-centric and don\u2019t rely solely on KPIs to drive your design decisions, you can use them as one of many tools to help you achieve better UX.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to learn more about creating awesome user experiences? Discover <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/storytelling-in-ux-design\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how to use storytelling in UX design<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or read about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/will-ai-replace-ux-designers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how to leverage AI for better UX<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do UX designers really need to track UX KPIs? Yes\u2014and we explain why in this guide. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about tracking KPIs for better UX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278,279],"tags":[335],"class_list":["post-7850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-ux-explained","tag-ux-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7850"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10034,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7850\/revisions\/10034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}