User experience is one of the most critical factors in determining your success. Even with lucrative offerings, impressive promotions, and high-quality content, poor user experience can significantly limit your potential. Users don’t want to waste time figuring out how to navigate your website to find what they need. A website shouldn’t require a learning curve. It’s not a work tool but a sales platform, online store, and digital showroom. This means that to guide users toward a positive customer journey, your website must be frustration-free and intuitive.

Naturally, measuring user experience is essential to identifying and improving areas of your site that might be holding back growth and success. These metrics reveal how users perceive and interact with your website, mobile app, or digital platform. This provides a quantifiable gauge of user satisfaction.

But how exactly do you measure user experience? Are the same metrics applicable across websites, apps, and platforms? And what considerations should you take into account before diving into measurement? Let’s explore.

Quantitative Or Qualitative Metrics

There are two main types of metrics when measuring user experience.

Quantitative metrics focus on measurable data represented in numbers, percentages, or other values. These metrics provide a clear view of user behavior on your website, product, or any specified platform. They allow you to spot patterns and assess the effectiveness of your efforts with precise, comparative data. Some of the most valuable quantitative metrics include revenue, conversion rate, customer retention rate, growth rate, sales volume, engagement rate, completion rate, and time spent on the page. Tracking these often requires third-party tools.

Qualitative metrics, on the other hand, capture the subjective perceptions of your online presence. Unlike quantitative data, qualitative insights don’t always need to be expressed numerically. They are often gathered through interviews, feedback, and surveys. These metrics give context to user behaviors and perceptions, adding depth to your understanding. Key qualitative metrics include customer satisfaction, brand sentiment, product feedback, employee morale, market perception, user experience feedback, testimonials, reviews, and employee feedback. Their main purpose is to uncover the “why” behind the quantitative data.

Ideally, you’ll want to use a combination of both types. But let’s discuss further the metrics, measurements, and what they will show you.

1. Usability

As the name suggests, usability is the foundation of user experience. It reflects how efficiently users can interact with your product. The stronger your usability is, the easier users will be to complete tasks, find what they need quickly, and accomplish their goals without frustration. Naturally, this will improve many other metrics. Needless to say, usability measurement is crucial for your overall success.

Two usability metrics will show how well you did your job in creating a genuinely impressive UX.

Task Success Rate

Task Success Rate measures the percentage of users who can successfully complete a specific task without errors. As you can imagine, this will shed light on how well the product has been designed with the particular goal in mind. Usually, these tests take place during dedicated usability test sessions. Subjects are given a specific task, for example, to place an item into the cart. If the success rate is high, you designed your website well for the set task. Still, these tasks can vary depending on the industry and the set goal. While placing an item into a cart is relatively simple, some Task success rate goals can be harder. For example, if you are measuring a banking app, you may ask the users to transfer a set amount of money into a different account.

Now, when it comes to this measurement, the success rate is important. However, where you will find grounds for improvement is on the precisely opposite end. In other words, if you have a 90% success rate and a 10% failure rate, you’d want to analyze the failures. Their feedback can help you improve your design. Thus you can perfect your design and avoid  any misleading direction or other hurdle that causes confusion.

Task Completion Time

Successful completion is just one aspect of the overall usability measurement. It’s wise to find out how fast users can finish a predetermined task. This is where Task Completion Time comes into play. This will show you where the bottlenecks in your product are and how efficient your website journey is, and it will help you identify where users may struggle.

This measurement can be done live. You don’t need to set sessions. All you need is to measure the time it takes a user to complete a predetermined goal. The shorter the time, the smoother the experience.

Naturally, you will need a benchmark to measure your success. For example, if we take the banking app, if it takes your customers 3 minutes to accomplish the transaction, while the industry standard is 90 seconds, you need to optimize the steps. You need to analyze which step takes the most time to complete and find a solution to either streamline it or entirely avoid it.

2. User Satisfaction

This measurement will give you a clear understanding of how users perceive your website’s experience. Naturally, this is crucial for your success, as happy customers are usually returning customers. These users are more prone to spend again, spend more, and form brand loyalty. There are two main metrics you need to consider when analyzing user satisfaction.

Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely users are to recommend your product to others on a scale from 0 to 10. You can calculate NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those who respond with a score of 0-6) from the percentage of Promoters (those who respond with a score of 9-10), leaving the Passives (score of 7-8) neutral. This gives an NPS score ranging from -100 to 100 percent.

Whenever you encounter the tedious question, “How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend (for B2C products) or colleague (for B2B products)?” this is precisely NPS measuring. Naturally, a high NPS shows you’ve done a great job, and users find significant value in your website or product and are ready to endorse it. This is the first step toward brand loyalty and finding brand ambassadors. On the other hand, a lower NPS indicates dissatisfaction within the customer base.

Naturally, the industry standards will determine the acceptable NPS levels. For example, if you are operating a sports app, the NPS can be much different than a luxury watch retail website. Both have different types of users and, naturally, different user behavior.

Customer Satisfaction Score

Then there is the customer Satisfaction Score, also known as (CSAT). This measurement will indicate how satisfied customers are with a specific aspect of your product or service. You’ve probably seen this after dealing with customer service when the service provider asks you to give a 1-5 score regarding your satisfaction with the service. Adding emoticons as answers can show a higher response rate in this case, as people prefer to match their experience on an emotional level rather than numerically.

Naturally, the CSAT will give you immediate feedback on specific interactions, helping teams identify issues or successes in real time. It’s particularly useful after new features are launched or customer service interactions. For example, if you’ve changed your checkout experience, you’d want to ask the customers to share their satisfaction with the new experience. Now, if you receive a perfect score, you obviously did your job flawlessly.

However, when it comes to customer satisfaction, pretty good is not good enough. You can’t accept a 4.8 or even 4.9 as a good enough score. This means some of your users experience difficulty, which may cause others to abandon carts, search for alternatives, or simply refuse to return. For example, some users may find it frustrating that they can’t find the “guest checkout” as easily as they can find the sign-up checkout. This shows you’re aggressively pushing them to deepen their relationship with you. This may not be the best strategy.

3. User Engagement

User engagement metrics show how actively and meaningfully users interact with your website, mobile app, or platform. These metrics provide valuable insights into user interest and satisfaction. Higher engagement indicates that users find the website or product valuable and are likelier to return or follow the customer journey. There are three main engagement metrics you need to follow if you want to create a data-driven strategy to increase engagement levels.

Number Of Sessions

First off, there are the number of sessions (NOS). These metrics show how often users interact with your website (or other product) within a given time. Now, the period entirely depends on your industry, business model, and product. For example, if you are running an e-commerce website, weekly or monthly sessions will show much more reliable data than daily. On the other hand, if you are looking at news websites, blogs, or social media websites, daily or hourly sessions will give you a great overlook of your current situation. These metrics can also force problems with your UX out in the open.

To be considered a session, one visit must start with an interaction. For example, if you run an e-commerce website, a session is considered clicking on a product. The end of the session can be either positive – if the user proceeds to checkout, or negative – if they log out or have a prolonged period of inactivity.

A high number of sessions can suggest that users are returning frequently, indicating that they find the product useful or enjoyable. A lower number, on the other hand, may suggest that the user experience is not on par with the expectations.

Session Duration

Along with the number of sessions, the duration of the session is also quite important. Longer sessions suggest that users find the content entertaining, engaging, and valuable. This indicates a higher probability of sharing your website. Session duration is measured from the moment a user begins a session to the time they close it or become inactive. Of course, the average session depends on the product type and industry. For example, a news article will take much longer to read and understand than looking through memes.

For streaming services like YouTube, session duration is among the most valuable metrics, showing whether the suggested other content reflects the user’s interests. So, a lower session rate will give you a hint of whether your content strategy needs upgrading.

Frequency Of Use

Finally, we have the frequency of use, which measures how often a user returns to the product over a specific time frame. Frequent use indicates that the product has become part of the user’s routine and holds substantial value for them.

As you can guess, the frequency of use can be calculated by tracking individual user sessions over time. High frequency means users find ongoing value, while low frequency may signal that the product doesn’t meet long-term needs.

Naturally, frequent users are much more likely to become loyal, long-term users. This is invaluable for periodic services.

4. Conversion Rate

Conversion rates can be considered much more important for sales, but they can also be used to identify problems with your UX. After all, user experience is the cornerstone behind your customer journey. It’s the one that will lead the user through the journey, converting them into a customer. Now, the conversion rates alone won’t tell you the entire story. For example, a bad CTR may come from poor copy or image choice. It may also be because of lousy communication channels or targeting the wrong audience. However, cross-referenced with other measurements, conversion rates can pinpoint the exact location where the problem occurs.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of users who click on a specific link, button, or call-to-action (CTA) out of the total number of users who viewed it. CTR is a leading indicator of user interest and engagement with specific elements of the product. If you have a lower-than-usual CTR, you may have a problem with the loading time, or the CTA can be unclear. Most often, bad CTR is caused by unoptimized content. Still, it’s a good idea to check if your lead generation page UX is up to the task.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. This metric directly indicates how well the product or website achieves its primary business goals. So, just like the CTR, it may indicate a problem, not on your lead generation page but rather on your sales page.

The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of users who complete the desired action by the total number of users who started it, then multiplying by 100. For instance, if 1000 users land on a product page, and 100 of them make a purchase, the conversion rate is 10%.

A lower than industry conversion rate might indicate that your page flow is disrupted. Taking time to pinpoint where precisely the user loses interest will bring you a long way to increasing your conversion rates. This is most efficiently done through A/B testing.

Abandonment Rate

Finally, there is the abandonment rate. This is the metric that will show you problems with your checkout page or any other disruption that came after the user converted. For example, if you offer a free demo on a SaaS product, you’d need some user data like name and e-mail address to continue the sales process and arrange the demo meeting.

However, one of the boxes insists on a phone. This drives most of the customers away, raising the abandonment rate to 50%. Now, first, you have to prove that the phone requirement is what drives the customers away at the last second. A simple A/B test can show you if that’s the case, and you can significantly increase your demo presentations with a simple change.

5. Retention Rate

Next on our list are the retention rate metrics. These will show how well a product keeps users returning over time. Naturally, this is essential for a sustainable growth strategy. A higher retention means your website offers extra value. For example, if you offer sportswear, a person may come and buy a jacket. But if your website is easily navigable, well designed, and puts the user’s needs in front of the products, the user will return to look for other products. The higher the retention rate, the higher the customer lifetime value can be. So, you need to keep a closer look at these two stats.

User Retention Rate

As the name suggests, the URR measures the percentage of users who return to your website within a predetermined period of time. The URR is calculated by dividing the number of users who return at the end of a specific period by the total number of users at the start of that period, then multiplying by 100. For instance, if 1000 users signed up on day one and 400 returned within 30 days, then your monthly retention rate is 40%. When it comes to websites, this can be followed pretty easily through Google Analytics.

Naturally, a higher retention rate shows that users find value in your website. It’s the core indicator of customer loyalty.

Churn Rate

Then there is the Churn Rate. This is the more important metric you need to follow. It shows the percentage of users who stop using your product after a given period. This metric is essential for subscription-based websites and products. A higher churn rate indicates that the user experience has gone wrong. This metric will allow you to follow your UX after an update. If you change your interface in the last update and you notice a higher churn rate, you might want to change it back or at least find what drives your regulars away.

6. Error Rate

All websites are prone to issues, regardless of how well they are maintained. However, a high error rate indicates that your website is experiencing a significant usability problem. It may be caused by lost content, a technical bug, or a confusing customer journey. Unfortunately, all of these will hinder your overall success. Tracking and reducing error rates is essential for creating a smooth user experience. So, naturally, you need to follow these two metrics.

Error Frequency

Naturally, you’d want to stay on top of error occurrences. Error frequency is calculated by tracking the number of errors that occur over a specific time or task. For instance, if users encounter 50 errors during 1000 interactions with a feature, the error frequency is 5%.

High error frequency often indicates usability problems, which can lead to frustration and task abandonment. For example, this can be what causes the high abandonment rate. If you have a 10% error frequency on your checkout page, this will tarnish your reputation and credibility.

Error Severity

The more important factor is the Error Severity. Error severity measures the impact of errors on user experience, categorizing them by how much they disrupt or prevent task completion. Errors are often classified as low, medium, or high severity, but you can use your own scale.

Errors are rated based on their effect on the user experience. High-severity errors block users from completing tasks, while low-severity errors might be minor inconveniences. Now, of course, you have to take care of the errors regardless of their severity, but with this metric, you know which one to prioritize.

For example, if there is a wrong link connected to your CTA, and 100% of the conversions end up on a 404 page, this is a business-ruining level of error. So fixing it ASAP is crucial. If, on the other hand, you have a slightly displaced picture that covers part of your content, this is also a huge problem, but it can wait until the one that blocks the entire process is taken care of.

7. Loading Time

Finally, we have the loading time metrics. Website loading speed is crucial for any user experience. Today, people rarely wait more than 3 seconds for a website to show on their browsers. Furthermore, slower loading time will inevitably lead to frustration, abandonment, and a significantly lower retention rate.

So, of course, you need to stay on top of these two important metrics.

Page Load Time

The page load time metric will show you if your website is running a bit slower than it should. It measures the total time it takes for a web page to load and become usable after a user enters fully. So, the faster your loading time, the better the user experience and the lower the bounce rate.

For example, if your website lags when the user clicks on the CTA and then it lags when they convert, the chances of them abandoning their cart for a more reliable website are high. On the other hand, if they get instantly where they need to go and there is absolutely no delay, the thought of an error after entering their credentials is highly unlikely. This is a prerequisite for the user to finish the purchase.

Response Time

The response time is another crucial element that enhances the user experience. For example, if you have an image of a product on your website, and it enlarges as the mouse hovers over it, the response time can make or break your sale. Imagine hovering over a product without a change, only to move the mouse and it to enlarge 3 seconds later. It’s frustrating and diminishes your credibility. Users expect a smooth and instant response to their actions, and providing them with such a response is a sure way to reduce the bounce rate.

Which metrics to follow?

Well, that depends entirely on your product, target audience, and goals. The metrics that will have the most impact on your website depending on your industry and what are your user’s expectations. You need to identify your user’s journey and prioritize their needs. For example, for a blog, clear readability and navigation are essential, while for an e-commerce website, loading speed and error rates are just as important.

Furthermore, e-commerce websites will prioritize conversion rate and engagement rate metrics, while news and blog websites will track time on page, retention, and engagement.

Regardless of the website type, however, website speed metrics are essential to any user experience design. You can’t have an outstanding design if no one waits for it to load.

Luckily, there is an easy way to ensure your loading speed is always up and running as fast as the speed of light. Using HostArmada as your website hosting partner will give you the infrastructure to ensure your website loading speed and response time are lightning-fast. Our cloud-based hosting allows us to ensure optimal speed regardless of the traffic and server pressure. Furthermore, we offer state-of-the-art security and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

So, in essence, your user experience enhancement starts with checking our plans and choosing the one that will best fit your needs. After that, it’s all a matter of following the stats and A/B testing your way to success.