KPIs (Key performance indicators)
Welcome to the key performance indicators, you’ll want to have a way to measure the effectiveness of your product or prototype. For this, we use key performance indicators, or KPIs. These are critical measures of progress toward an end goal. Today we’ll check out six KPIs that can be useful in UX research studies: time on task, use of navigation versus search, user error rates, drop-off rates, conversion rates, and system usability scale, or SUS.
1- time on task.
This measures how long it takes for a user to complete a task. A task could include filling out forms, making a purchase, or any other user activities. It’s generally safe to assume that the less time it takes for users to perform a task, the more effective your UX design is. Next, we have
2- use of navigation versus search.
This KPI indicates the number of people who use a website or app’s navigation compared to the number of people who use the search functionality. Think about when you visit a website; do you use the navigation bar to get around the site or do you go straight to the search bar and type in what you’re looking for? There is no right answer. Everyone has their preference for how they get to where they want to go. Ideally, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to navigate the site, but if this KPI indicates that people use one navigation method way more than they use the other, you might want to adjust your design as a result.
3- user error rates.
indicate the parts of a design that cause users to make errors. An example might be that they click on the wrong icon when trying to check out their cart. The user error rates help point to areas where you need to make improvements to the UX. Keep in mind though, that just because a design element has a low error rate doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a strong design. Study participants could use the product correctly but still not understand what they’re doing. This can cause as much frustration as not being able to complete an action.
4- drop-off rates.
which show how many users abandon the experience. In other words, this shows how many users quit before reaching the end of a purchase or some other endpoint you’re trying to lead them to. Maybe they got bored or maybe they got frustrated because they couldn’t do what they wanted. Either way, you want to decrease drop-off rates with each design iteration.
5- conversion rate.
is a number you want to see increase. It measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action. Let’s say you want users to take multiple steps and make a purchase. The conversion rate tells you the percentage of users that actually made a purchase.
6- System usability scale (SUS).
Finally, if you want to answer the question “How easy is my app to use?” and you need quantifiable answers, a system usability scale can help. A system usability scale(SUS) is a questionnaire to measure the usability of your designs. With an SUS, users are asked to agree or disagree with ten statements about the usability of a design. The users are asked to respond to each statement on a “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” scale. It’s a quick and reliable way to know if a design is working. When conducting a study, you typically wouldn’t use all six of these KPIs. Instead, you’d choose a couple that map most closely to your research goals.
