I have broken up my study into 4 parts to start off with: Copy/Conversion/Images/Menu. More than happy to explore other areas and/or supply design recommendations if there’s interest.

Copy

Copy is an underrated aspect to any website. It’s really a weapon; when used properly it’s an asset, but when used poorly it can be a huge liability. The words you choose, and even the words you choose not to use, will set the message and tone for how the user will absorb your product.

Google Analytics tells you what’s happening.

KISSmetrics tells you who’s doing it.

These two sentences automatically draw the user’s attention since they are the only 2 complete sentences on the homepage. The first sentence grounds the user in what he/she already knows. The second uses that information to relate what KISSmetrics actually does. Brilliant!

However from a reader’s perspective, the second sentence comes off pretty confusing. With words like you, who’s, and it, ambiguity sets in early on. It’s understandable that KISSmetrics wants to communicate to you directly but once the term is used with all the other vague words, meaning is lost very quickly.

Here’s my recommendation:

Google Analytics shows what’s happening.

KISSmetrics uncovers who’s behind it.

This new copy does a few things more effectively. It progressively improves KISSmetrics’ value to the user. With this choice of words, magic and mystery are added to the product offering since it provides what wasn’t previously possible. By avoiding doing it, the language is more enticing rather than redundantly refering to something the user is already aware of.

Conversion

As I learned from the KISSinsights blog early on, you should maximize conversion with a clear call to action. By simply logging in to your Google account, KISSmetrics has significantly reduced friction by letting the user experience the benefit without needing to sign up for the product or even engage in a trial. The product can speak for itself!

The great thing is this funnel is completely optimized for existing Google Analytics customers to sign in. This is probably how KISSmetrics measures conversions. Unfortunately, there’s a few issues with this approach:

The big one is if a user doesn’t have Google Analytics. The page, product, and call to action become completely irrelevant very quickly. Although this might be by design, it misses interesting opportunities for KISSmetrics to educate the customer on Google Analytics or direct them to another solution from their team or another.

Also, the copy again is an issue.

Have a Google Analytics account?

Log In with Google (button)

The call to action here should be much more powerful than Log In. Currently, it’s harmless but way too humble. Additionally, the Google Analytics and then Google copy right after is redundant.

Here’s my recommendation:

Find out now

Log In to Google Analytics

Find out now connects the previous statements with how the product will benefit the user specifically. Log In to Google Analytics might be a longer button but is unambiguous as to what the user is doing. The combination of these two statements is more likely to have the larger impact on the user.

Menu

Navigation on websites has been changing at an increasingly rapid pace over the past decade. What was typically at the top has fell to the footer. It’s difficult for designers and developers to embrace trends while still remaining usable to the user.

In the KISSmetrics navigation, 2 sets of bottom menus exist, a bottom navigation menu above the fold and a footer menu below the fold. These menus vary by number of items, style, and placement. While playing around with resolution, it is clear that the bottom navigation menu is a bandage to allow the user to view a specialized menu even without scrolling to the bottom. This menu disappears completely at lower resolutions and the footer takes it place as the sole menu. This inconsistency begs for a cleaner solution to the problem despite the clever use of solving the fold issue when it comes to navigation.

Images

Visuals are playing a larger and larger part of site design as resolutions improve and people have more personal ties towards products and brands as extensions of their own lifestyle.

The KISSmetrics landing page does a great job of combining the cold hard data in graphs with the liveliness of a human being. Similar to the Menu issue above, the images start to have a awkward relationship with each other as the resolution drops and moves toward mobile-friendly ones. The graph plays a more dominant role at lower resolutions compared to the subject.

Although users aren’t playing with resolutions on a regular basis, it begs the question of what the correct impression is and how to make that message consistent. It would be unfortunate that this is the reason that mobile usage of KISSmetrics has different metrics compared to higher resolution usage.

Conclusion

KISSmetrics has done a great job of eliminating the usual excess of landing pages. They have focused just on what is important for the user. However when applying this approach, it puts the limited content of the site under a microscope. With this usability study, I hope to help KISSmetrics perfect what they have already crafted. A stronger emphasis on messaging and consistency can really improve an already great site.

If you’d like a quick & dirty usability study of your product/service, tweet me @orky