Analytics + Usability Test = What + Why
The product head of a large Indian private bank that offers online money remittance was extremely concerned — after login, 72% people dropped out during the money remittance process. After several product iterations, the dropout rates did not change significantly. However, turning to usability testing helped them understand the key reasons people were dropping out. Post design changes, the bank was able to reduce the dropouts to less than 10%, increasing the revenue several folds.
An ERP vendor had a online application that helped small business owners calculate their savings very accurately (down to the last penny!) post ERP implementation. The software maker received fewer than 30 calls from 3650 small business owners who calculated their savings. Wondering the reasons, they turned to usability testing for answers. And, to the their surprise, it turned out that the real reason for low interest was the suspicion generated by the extreme accuracy of the application.
A large mobile phone maker was concerned about abysmal activation rates of the native email application. After usability testing, they realised that the process was made for a technically inclined people clearly required technical inputs during specific steps. They redesigned the application to eliminate technical intervention and the activation rates quadrupled.
Why Analytics?
Analytics help to understand a true measure of these activities:
- Where are the users coming from?
- Where are users going while using your product?
- Where are they leaving your product?
Analytics is a great way to start identifying the genesis of users’ problems — the ‘What.’ As analytics use a very large sample size, the quantum of problem is also clearly known.
However, analytics completely fails when you want to understand the reasons for users’ behaviour.
So how do we understand the reasons for users’ problems? There are several ways to understand them, the key method used globally is known as Usability Testing.
Why Usability Testing?
To understand the reasons and ultimately solve the problems, a user research method like usability testing must be used to compliment analytics. Usability testing helps understand:
- Why are people using your product?
- Why are people doing stuff the way they are doing on your product?
- Why are people getting stuck?
- Why are they leaving your product?
- Why are people not buying something?
Usability testing is about human behaviour and does not involve asking people their opinions through either in focus groups or interviews — usability testing observes actual human behaviour and helps understand the ‘Why.’
Large e-commerce companies, BFSI companies, and software product companies across the globe use Usability Testing along with analytics iteratively to understand the reasons for user behaviour and make informed design changes.
