How do you measure the impact of usability improvements on users and business?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you start testing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Depending on your product or service, you may have different goals and metrics, such as increasing conversions, reducing errors, enhancing satisfaction, or saving time. You should align your goals and metrics with your business objectives and user needs, and make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

2 Collect baseline data

To measure the impact of usability improvements, you need to have a baseline data to compare against. This means collecting data on how users currently interact with your product or service, using methods such as analytics, surveys, interviews, or observations. You should collect data on the same metrics that you defined in the previous step, and try to get a representative sample of your target users and scenarios.

3 Conduct usability testing

Once you have your baseline data, you can conduct usability testing to identify and prioritize usability issues and opportunities for improvement. You can use different types of usability testing, such as moderated or unmoderated, lab or remote, formative or summative, depending on your goals and resources. You should test with real or realistic users, tasks, and contexts, and collect both qualitative and quantitative data, such as user feedback, task completion rates, error rates, time on task, or satisfaction ratings.

4 Implement and evaluate improvements

After you analyze the results of usability testing, you can implement the most important and feasible usability improvements, based on the severity and frequency of the issues and the effort and cost of the solutions. You should also evaluate the impact of these improvements, by collecting data on the same metrics that you used for the baseline and the testing, and comparing them to see if there are any significant changes or differences.

5 Communicate the results and benefits

The final step is to communicate the results and benefits of usability testing and usability improvements to your stakeholders, such as clients, managers, developers, or users. You should use clear and concise language, visual aids, and storytelling techniques to present your findings and recommendations, and highlight how they relate to the goals and metrics that you defined at the beginning. You should also quantify the benefits of usability improvements, such as how much they increase conversions, reduce errors, enhance satisfaction, or save time, and translate them into business value, such as revenue, cost savings, retention, or loyalty.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?