A bad user experience is driving users away, faster than you think. Up to **[32%](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html) of users would leave a beloved brand after just ONE bad experience**.  Why? Because users abandon sites when they reach a certain level of frustration. Or even worse! They never come back, after a lousy user experience.

Hey, cheer up! YOU have nothing to worry about. In this blog article, we will explore different methods and tips on how to turn frustration into a positive experience. And, of course, keep customers coming back for more. But before we do that, let’s find out what are the most common reasons for frustrations.

## The 4 most common causes of user frustration on a website {#the-4-most-common-causes-of-user-frustration-on-a-website}

### 1. Unreliability = Bugs

Nowadays, a company's credibility is mostly judged on its website. Bad UX design, broken links, complicated purchase process, and flawed navigation are the sources of users' frustration.
According to clutch.co, users’ primary site frustration is its unreliability. **[54%](https://clutch.co/web-designers/resources/user-experience-top-websites-2018) of users will stop using the site if they find it unreliable**. And if this problem persists, nearly 63% of visitors will ditch a site permanently. Confused users are not likely to convert.

Under unreliability, customers might find broken links, 404 errors, and other bugs like non-clickable CTA. No one likes to reach a dead-end, especially when they have a purchase intention. Each error reduces the company's credibility and is viewed as a red flag. There is no doubt that those bugs can only do harm to your business. 

![Broken-links-the-biggest-cause-of-user-frustration.png](/uploads/Broken_links_the_biggest_cause_of_user_frustration_f36d2ab1ff.png)

### 2. Slow page loading 

A long page loading time might be the first issue that your users are facing. And it’s the second most frequent reason for users’ frustration. 

Site performance measures the time it takes to load content on the website when the user clicks on a link. Imagine, you type the web address, and a blank page opens. And you wait and wait. Just like Tom Hanks waits on the bench in Forrest Gump. The time is running and still… nothing has happened. **[83%](https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/website-page-load-time-conversions/) of customers expect the site to load in less than 3 seconds**! 1 out 4 of visitors would abandon a website that will do it in just 4 sec. 

![Slow-page-loading-statistics.jpg](/uploads/Slow_page_loading_statistics_63c80c03ee.jpg)

[Source](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/mobile-site-load-time-statistics/)

But slow page loading not only frustrates users, but also affects your SEO performance. The Google algorithm prioritizes high-speed pages. You can check your page performance on Google’s [PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) tool.

### 3. Too much generic content

You might think that offering more options to users usually makes them more satisfied and will speed up the purchase. It won't. Quite the contrary.

![web-design-mistakes.jpg](/uploads/web_design_mistakes_344e9d38e8.jpg)

[Source](https://www.titangrowth.com/blog/7-steps-to-better-landing-pages-420/)

Choice overload can leave your users frustrated and cause attention problems. Customers’ eyes don't know where to focus. The mouse cursor starts to act chaotic, sliding through different page elements. Just to find the desired content. The user's ability to make decisions goes out the window because everything is so distracting.

So, have you ever heard the expression, “less is more”? The user must have clear guidelines of what you want them to do. That's why your site should be designed according to user experience commandments. For example, legible CTA buttons, no-overwhelming content to make them want more, and intuitive site navigation.

### 4. A broken “back” button or its complete absence

How many times were you about to finalize your purchase, and at the last moment, you decided to change the delivery method? You start looking for the back button. Your frustration starts to rise. After a few seconds of searching, you realize that there is no such thing as a back button, or it doesn’t work. You’re losing your cool. 

<center><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/6xgslyYQCyLa8" width="480" height="384" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/angry-mad-frustrated-6xgslyYQCyLa8">via GIPHY</a></p></center>

Take a deep breath. There is always a back-button option in your browser. You close your eyes and start to pray that the completed form will reload again. The site does. And you can't believe what you see! Not only did all the form fields go blank, but the same happened to the whole order. Your frustration level plumbs new depths. There is no chance in hell that this purchase will have a happy ending.

## How to detect user frustration on a website? {#how-to-detect-user-frustration-on-a-website}

You already know the most common reason for user frustration, so how to search and get rid of them? In order to spot user frustrations causes, you need to find behavioral patterns. And Experience Metrics will permit you to do that.

Experience Metrics is a [cux.io](https://cux.io/) feature that allows you to discover places on the website that make users angry and frustrated. You can track frustrations that may inhibit your conversion on the CUX dashboard immediately after logging into the app.

Thanks to CUX's Experience Metrics, you can track chaotic mouse movements, zooming content, rage clicks, or rage key presses. You will immediately find that something wrong is happening on your website. And customers have difficulties trying to deal with it.

![Experience-metrics-cux.png](/uploads/Experience_metrics_cux_b83e5ff3a3.png)

### Rage clicks

When users press a tremendous number of clicks in a short period of time, it means they just experienced a rage click. And it’s not a good sign. Shortly, it means that there is no computer response.

#### [What is a rage click | cux.io tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/embed/oqA_Tjy-HRs)

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oqA_Tjy-HRs" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

One of the website elements that rage click appear are broken links. They also direct UX design imperfections, errors, and bugs. With metrics like rage clicks, you can immediately spot places on the site that need optimization.

[Learn more about rage clicks >](https://cux.io/blog/what-is-a-rage-clicks/)

### Rage key presses

Rage key presses are a close relative to rage clicks. They occur when people **quickly and chaotically press numerous keys on their keyboards**. Rage key presses are the highest level of user frustration and can be only tracked on a desktop.

#### [What is a rage key press | cux.io tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/embed/YpvTtHRz8JY)

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YpvTtHRz8JY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

Same as rage clicks, rage key presses indicate no computer reaction.

### Chaotic Movement 

How to see if your user is lost? Can't find the content that he is looking for? The answer is a chaotic movement! **When people start to be confused or lost — their mouse movement reflects their state of mind**. They are scrolling down-up-down-up or moving the mouse in various directions without a specific goal. It reminds me of an anxiety attack.

#### [What is a chaotic movement | cux.io tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/embed/MM1A0qylEtY)

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MM1A0qylEtY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

### Refreshing

You can use refreshing as an indicator for slow page load. Users get frustrated when the page is not opening as fast as they will want to. So immediately they are trying to speed this process up by pressing the F5 function key or reloading that page button in short intervals.

As refreshing, we consider **at least 3-page loads in a time less than or equal to 5000 ms**.

Moreover, refreshing metrics might occur to some page elements that haven’t loaded correctly or at all (like photos, graphics, links, etc.). Visitors also refresh rapidly when some parts of the page are not in their proper place.

### Zooming

When something is unreadable, users are zooming it. It means that text, photos, infographics, or buttons aren’t accessible enough. By enlarging or miniaturizing the content, they are able to see or click it.

The zooming metric may also depend on the age of your target audience. If your customers are from the silver generation, it will be better to think about enlarging your content.

#### [What is a zooming | cux.io tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/embed/9zkVWDrxsSI)

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9zkVWDrxsSI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

Zooming will also be a clue if your checkboxes need some improvements. It’s mostly applied to mobile and tablets. Because it’s common that checkboxes on those devices might be too small for users to select, or they might be too close to the edge. 

## How to fix user frustration with a quick win? {#how-to-fix-user-frustration-with-a-quick-win}

CUX’s Experience Metrics immediately points out what raises users' blood pressure. It's an opportunity to turn those pieces of information into a quick-win solution that eliminates users' reasons for frustration.

If you desire a fast solution that responds to the needs of your users, quick wins might be what you are looking for. **Quick wins are based on the continuous observation of analytics metrics and users’ behaviors.** Thanks to analytics. We’re able to choose the proper solutions that allow us to make business decisions based on data, and not on the intuitions or stakeholders’ wishes.

To find out the explanations for user frustration on your website, go to the Goals section in CUX and create a new one. You can use ready-made, predefined goals or create your own custom ones. Then, map the customer journey with Conversion Waterfall. CUX allows you to analyze extensive conversion funnels based on any event. 

CUX’s algorithm detects and defines user behavior patterns that may inhibit conversion. Experience Metrics allows you to spot places that cause frustration and make customers drop off the conversion funnel. CUX automatically selects visit recordings in which frustration and users’ pain points occur. 

![Negative emotions in Experience Metrics.png](/uploads/Negative_emotions_in_Experience_Metrics_105ee0e9dc.png)

The next step is for you to analyze. Visit recordings and heatmaps will allow you to visualize the customer experience through their whole visit to your site. You will see places that cause user frustration and find opportunities for quick win optimization. Ladies and gentlemen, we are more than happy to announce that we have a winner! 

<center><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/IwAZ6dvvvaTtdI8SD5" width="480" height="400" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/theoffice-the-office-tv-michaels-birthday-IwAZ6dvvvaTtdI8SD5">via GIPHY</a></p></center>

### Quick win examples:

- [Form Analytics](https://cux.io/form-analytics/)
- [Intuitive sequence](https://cux.io/blog/quick-wins-intuitive-sequence/)
- [Shorten the user journey](https://cux.io/blog/quick-wins-shorten-the-user-journey/)

## It’s all about the experience {#it’s-all-about-the-experience}

User experience is a crucial component of business growth. According to Zippia, better UX design increases a website’s conversion rates by up to 200%, and **positive UX in eCommerce means 3x more customer visits.**

There is nothing to wait for. REACT! Analyze your user behaviors, eliminate issues on your site that may cause drops in conversion, and increase your ROI! You have a real deal on the table, or should we say on your site. 😉

[![CUX-drop-a-line-1.png](/uploads/CUX_drop_a_line_1_b4edf5d744.png)](mailto:team@cux.io)

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing newsletter! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉


Reasonf-for-user-frustration.png

Frustration is a universal experience, but when we speak about user frustration on a website, there is no place for mercy. 

Frustration is a universal experience that might occur not only to a toddler or an adult, but also to a website. It’s easy to say to a 4-year kiddo “be patient” or “behave yourself”. But when we speak about user frustration on a website, there is no place for mercy. 

The most common reasons of user frustration on websites

There is no definitive answer to the question of what attracts a user the most while using a website. However, our experience in researching and analysing [observable pages](https://cux.io/blog/how-to-create-more-observable-webpages-part-one/) shows that there are certain features that customers notice more often than others.

## 4 things that make up attractive pages for your customers {#4-things-that-make-up-attractive-pages-for-your-customers}

### Simple website navigation to attract more traffic

Simple and intuitive page navigation is one of the basics that makes your pages more attractive! It is also one of the easiest mistakes to spot when analyzing user behavior. Any customers’ lostness will be immediately visible in Conversion Waterfall traffic drops.

### Clear methods of payment make for an attractive page

As cliché as it sounds, it is one of the most important things consumers look for on websites! Clearly described, marked and standardized information on payment methods can raise or pack down your conversion. Inconsistencies, as a rule, are associated with a decrease in customer confidence. In effect, they stop perceiving your page as an attractive website and start to feel suspicious about your business.

![Heatmap for social proof section](/uploads/Screenshot_2022_05_04_at_13_09_35_0c806a40c1.png)

_<center>Problem identified with CUX: Users got lost while choosing subscription type, they would go back and try to change their initial choice. As a result, they’ve dropped out of the purchase path and never came back to the checkout / screen: [cux.io](https://cux.io/)</center>_

### Users look for social proof on websites

As much as 70% of users will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know. The average consumer reads even up to 10 online reviews before considering a purchase ([Social Proof Statistics](https://optinmonster.com/social-proof-statistics/) / Optinmonsters.com). The elements that make the brand credible are therefore one of the most important features that users look for on the website.

![Problem identified with CUX](/uploads/Picture_1_a20854e8e8.png)

_<center>Heatmaps can show you how users interact with your social proof display and help you optimize it to their needs / screen: cux.io</center>_

### User-friendly design is the key to retaining traffic

Photos, graphics, videos – this is a very broad subject when we talk about how to attract people’s attention on a website. Apparel e-commerce will have different design guidelines than companies selling services in the B2B model. What is essential, however, is your clients’ experiences when they encounter graphics on the website. You can track their emotions easily with Experience Metrics, in particular—zooming and page refreshing.

![Experience Metrics in CUX](/uploads/Experience_Metrics_1_78a5971cbe.png)

_<center>Users zoom their view to get a closer look at page elements that appear too small or unreadable on mobile devices. Users refresh pages if some page elements haven’t loaded correctly, they hope to see the misplaced or misaligned parts of the page or the page loads too slowly / Experience Metrics, cux.io</center>_



4-things-customers-pay-attention.png

How to attract traffic to your website?! If you’re working with user experiences, you’ve probably asked yourself this question many times. 

How to attract traffic to your website?! If you’re working with user experiences, you’ve probably asked yourself this question many times. While the answer may differ depending on your business profile or analytical goal, there are some universal things to pay attention on the website. 

4 things customers pay attention to when browsing websites

## What is UX research? {#what-is-ux-research}
UX research is the study of how users interact with your website and product. From the perspective of whether they have a “good experience” (in terms of both value and enjoyment) or not. It should be carried out continuously throughout a product’s lifecycle, not just at the beginning. You will ask why?

Because UX research helps to uncover what’s relevant for users. Identify the best ways to meet their needs; put proposed improvements to the test; and enable you to model and predict user behavior. Once you have collected these insights, you can make the improvements they point to.

## Types of UX research data {#types-of-ux-research-data}
There are two big, overlapping fault lines running through the UX research field:

- quantitative versus qualitative research
- attitudinal versus behavioral research 



**Quantitative research data** looks at what users do and seeks patterns in this by analyzing user activity in bulk. Your analytics software provides you with quantitative data in this way, as do closed-question surveys, micro surveys, A/B tests, etc. 

**Qualitative research** is all about “why” users do the things they do. So while quantitative research may tell you what percentage of users who got to your checkout left without completing a transaction, qualitative research would tell you what caused them to leave.

As such, qualitative research typically involves much smaller samples: relevant methods include interviews, focus groups, surveys with open-ended questions, etc. 

Attitudinal research looks at users’ attitudes towards products or brands. It can combine quantitative insights (it can be done at scale and produce numerical results) as well as qualitative (by asking questions about opinions, feelings, loyalty, etc.) – tracking where and when [rage clicks](https://cux.io/blog/what-is-a-rage-clicks/) occur most frequently, for example.

Finally, behavioral research is again concerned with what users do in observational studies. However, it doesn’t have to be aggregated into numerical terms. Individual use patterns observed in usability tests, for example, would be behavioral research data without being quantitative. 

## What is product adoption? {#what-is-product-adoption}
Product adoption takes place when a customer decides that they are going to use your product. Product adoption occurs when customers decide that they will use your product. They find that it delivers the value they were looking for. Furthermore, that they will stop looking for alternatives. So, product adoption is different from new user acquisition, which is when someone decides to give your product a try for the first time. 

Product adoption matters because SaaS businesses make money through subscription revenue. The longer you retain a customer, the more money you will make. Users who have adopted your product are less likely to churn than others. Not only that, studies have shown that it is usually between [5 and 25 times more expensive to acquire new users than to keep existing ones](https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers) and that [increasing retention by 5% increases profit by between 25% and 95%](https://media.bain.com/Images/BB_Prescription_cutting_costs.pdf).

## How UX affects adoption at each stage of product adoption? {#how-ux-affects-adoption-at-each-stage-of-product-adoption}
Product adoption doesn’t happen immediately out of anywhere. It’s a gradual process that includes several distinct stages. We’ve highlighted six – where the user’s needs, knowledge, and motivations are very different. At each touchpoint, UX affects users’ rates of progress towards adoption.

![Product Adoption Process](/uploads/Product_Adoption_Process_1_700x602_1161303649.png)

### UX and Awareness

A user has to know that your product exists and what it does before anything else! The experience the audience receives when they encounter your marketing has a huge impact in getting users to the Awareness stage. 

A good UX will cover making sure your product is discoverable by the right people (eg. that your website is well-optimized for relevant keywords; that the snippets that appear in search engine results pages are clear and accurate; that your ads are well-targeted; etc..). It will also ensure that visitors come away understanding the problem your product solves.

### UX and Interest

The second stage is “Interest” when a potential user starts seeking information about your product for themselves. To provide a good user experience here, you need to understand what different segments of users need to know. Moreover, help them find it with as little effort as possible. Most of this will take place on your website. However, they can also be conducted through earned media and social media. It’s important to ensure that the information and experience provided are consistent, wherever it is housed. 

### UX and Evaluation

At the “Evaluation” stage, users are weighing up the pros and cons of giving your product a try. Again, a good UX here is all about helping users accomplish that. So, your efforts should focus on communicating the best use cases. And also highlighting your strongest features, comparisons with competitors, and minimizing the perceived costs of testing your product out. 

### UX and Trial

When you have convinced a user to give your product a go – at the “Trial” stage – UX becomes even more important. Difficulties in signing up for a free trial, booking a demo, or confronting the user with confusing onboarding material can undermine all the good work done at earlier stages. 

### UX and Activation

This stage is missed out of many descriptions of the product adoption process. Nevertheless, we think it’s an essential step. Activated users have experienced the value your product promises for the first time. This is a key milestone along the way to long-term adoption. 

Your [user onboarding](https://userpilot.com/blog/interactive-walkthroughs-saas/) UX needs to focus on getting users to that point as quickly as possible (minimizing the Time To First Value KPI) and with minimal friction. It’s also important that users’ expectations of value are met: if you have created expectations your product doesn’t live up to, this is where it will be exposed!

### UX and Adoption

Finally! Now that a user has activated, the last stage is about convincing them that they need your product long-term. A good UX here is all about making it easy for users to realize more and more value from your product; resolving problems that they encounter quickly and smoothly; building up a relationship between users and your brand; and, on a more practical level, making it easy for users to pay.

## Applying UX research findings to product adoption {#applying-ux-research-findings-to-product-adoption}
So, now you’ve seen some of how UX affects product adoption rates at each of the six stages, plus how many different types of UX research there are. The next question we’ll examine is how to go about carrying out the research which will tell you how to improve adoption.

### Define your UX research plan 

Any research is only as good as the questions you ask, and UX research is no exception. Your first step is to determine the questions you want the research to answer. These should always be “actionable” and “specific” questions: actionable in the sense that it’s clear how to go about answering it; and specific in that you will recognize the answer when you see it. In a research plan, the questions should be broad, breaking down into different subtasks or questions.

It is also important when devising your questions to decide who the stakeholders you will need to consult with are; what budget you have available; and – in particular – what the most appropriate research methods are answering the questions you have chosen. 

### Map the ideal customer journey to adoption

If the research plan casts a broad eye across product adoption, the next step is to get granular. What in practice, “counts” as a user reaching one of the product adoption stage milestones? And what specific actions you should take to reach this threshold? 

Work your way through your current marketing, sales, and onboarding funnels step-by-step: what will a potential customer need and feel at each touchpoint? What are the steps they need to take in each of those situations to make progress? 

Once you have mapped your ideal customer journey from total unawareness to adoption. Then you can start looking into the pain points where users are diverging from their ideal journey. And also begin fixing them. 

### Identify the pain points that block product adoption

When your analytics software is configured to show the numbers and percentages of users who are passing each touchpoint successfully, in line with the ideal journey, you can start to see what needs to be improved. It can be very useful to use visualization software – like [cux.io](https://cux.io/) in the example below – to build out a dashboard showing a “conversion waterfall”.

![CUX report](/uploads/cux_report_b394c4720c.png)

When you see a sharp drop-off, it’s a cue to dig deeper into what’s happening. You can get a lot of information with session recordings and heatmaps. Session recordings show what a single user was doing in real-time – and our version records across different tabs, to give you unparalleled insight into actual user behavior. Heatmaps aggregate this data to show patterns in where multiple users are hovering and clicking. This will give you some insight into why users are not completing the desired actions. But you can close the loop by asking the question directly. When a user abandons a task midway through, for example, use a triggered micro survey to ask why. The answers you get will build up to form an image of how you can improve the UX to improve task completion rates. 

Alternatively, at the end of a workflow, you could deploy a quick NPS survey. Thanks to this you can get a more general view of user satisfaction with the task as a whole.

![Userpilot nps survey](/uploads/userpilot_nps_survey_16b242a6f6.png)

A low level of NPS satisfaction will point to a need to probe further into the details of that task workflow! But this is not the only way to approach pain points. You could equally start with qualitative questions (in a survey, for example) and look for quantitative evidence that other users are experiencing the same issues. This is a great way of discovering problems that you were not aware of, and which you may not have configured your analytics to report on. 

### Drive feature discovery and adoption with different UI patterns

One sure-fire way to improve product adoption is to provide more and more value to users. Using in-app prompts and experiences to drive new feature adoption is an excellent way to do this. Not only does it add value for satisfied customers, but it may also win over unconvinced users. This refers to users who have been assigned to the wrong audience segment and would benefit more from a different onboarding focus. 

With an onboarding platform like Userpilot, for example, you can build out experiences that include lots of different UI elements – checklists, interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, modals, hotspots, etc. – to see which get the best user response. Alternatively, they can all be configured to be contextually triggered. Based on user segment, history, previous interactions, etc.

### A/B test solutions against one another

Combining your quantitative and qualitative research, you will have come up with various hypotheses about how to improve adoption. But how will you know if your proposed solution is better than what you had before? Simple: A/B testing. Split similar users into two groups: the first group gets the old workflow; the second, the new one. Track the relative performance of each group and you’ll see which gives the better UX. 

UX experiments of this kind depend on agility and responsiveness. It is important to be able to set them up and get them running fast. For that reason, it’s much better to use no-code applications for building your website, app, onboarding experiences, etc. This will allow your product team to create and run the experiments themselves, rather than waiting for developer time to write custom code. 

### Define the best product adoption metrics

Of course, what counts as product adoption will be specific to your product. However, there are some common metrics that most businesses use in this respect:

- Time To First Value (TTFV) – how quickly users go from trial to activation
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – the average amount of revenue a user yields overall
- Product Activation Rate (PAR) – the percentage of users getting to the activation point
- Feature Adoption Rate – which as we’ve already mentioned is an excellent indicator of added value.


## Conclusion {#conclusion}
Understanding what your customers struggle with and why enables you to optimize your marketing and sales funnels, as well as your user onboarding. As we’ve shown if UX research is applied in the right way, it can be a major driver of improved product adoption. If you ignore it, you’re leaving money on the table!

[![CUX-drop-a-line-2.png](/uploads/CUX_drop_a_line_2_e8346a4821.png)](mailto:team@cux.io)

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://cux.io/newsletter/)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

UX-reaserch-product-adoption.png

Conducting UX research will provide insights that you can then use to get more customers using your product more regularly. Also, getting more value from it once they do.

Conducting UX research will provide insights that you can then use to get more customers using your product more regularly. Also, getting more value from it once they do. Asking the right questions of users is key. With the answers you get, it’s very easy to devise solutions and improvements and to test their effectiveness. Whether it’s quantitative behavioral data or qualitative information about how they feel and what they think.


In this article, we’ll explain how, but before that, we need to define some of the concepts involved.

How to act on UX research to improve product adoption?

## 4 reasons why you don't need Session Replay Tools {#4-reasons-why-you-don't-need-session-replay-tools}
### 1. You have no time for it
Let’s face it: no one has time to watch hundreds of thousands of videos of their users’ visits in session replay tools! It’s not a gripping thriller, but a tedious – quite often dry as dust – duty. The research shows that entrepreneurs can dedicate – with favorable conditions – about 5% of their time to the entire analytical process. And you want to tell me that someone will spend their 5% on binge-watching session replay of this one customer who was not able to get through to the checkout on their own? My eye!

>**Over half (57 percent) of marketers worldwide feel overwhelmed by the incoming data.**

The Brand Experience Playbook For 2021.

### 2. Sessions are not worth a cracker
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: visits are a much more reliable analytical value than sessions! How come? The difference between a visit and a session (if we take into account web analytics) is enormous. A session is only a fragment of the user’s entire visit to the site. If we want our analysis to be complete and accurate, we need to take account of the whole visit. It may consist of many tabs (and each of these tabs will be a separate session) that the customer opens to compare the products or services we offer.

![Visits vs sessions ](/uploads/explainer_700x357_aef0a72718.png)
_<center>The difference between sessions and visits</center>_

Imagine that the user opens 7 tabs and then makes a final purchase. If you’ll be analyzing sessions – like most of the analytical tools do – you’ll be analyzing each tab separately. This may lead you to wrongly conclude that there are not one, but seven users, of whom only one made a purchase and the rest left our site without converting. Whilst analyzing all the tabs as components of one visit, you’ll have a full picture of what is happening on the site. You’ll see that this was only one customer who opened seven tabs just to compare products before making a purchase. The conversion for this analysis will be 100% (one customer = one finalization of the transaction). Since this is the best possible conversion rate, you don’t have to think about additional expenses for advertising campaigns or changes on the website.

### 3. Cognitive biases are inevitable
Until now, working with data in any organization very often consisted of randomly checking statistics, viewing occasionally selected visit recordings, and seeking support for your hypotheses. Possibly downloading ready-made reports for presentation to the boss at the end of the month. Of course, this has nothing to do with being data-driven! Data collection is only 1/3 of the success. You need to be able to combine information to check if hypotheses are correct and to deepen them. To do this, while avoiding cognitive biases, you must create an articulate and comprehensive analytical strategy of the company.

The session replay tools provide crude figures, not conclusions. So it’s up to you to make sense of the numbers and translate them into business recommendations. And this is a truly friendly environment for most cognitive biases to appear.

The most common cognitive biases in analytics are:

- **IKEA EFFECT** – overestimating the things we have done ourselves,
- **STREET LIGHT EFFECT** – searching for information in places known, easy and accessible,
- **CONFIRMATION BIAS** – looking for information that confirms our initial hypotheses,
- **SELECTIVE PERCEPTION** – how we interpret data largely depends on our expectations.


### 4. You can automate your work
If you can measure something, you can optimize it! So why waste time (and often nerves – you won’t fool us) on single-handed and tedious data analysis when you can use tools that will do it for you?

CUX is the first and only UX Automation platform in the world. This means that it will recognize, detect and define the behavioral patterns of your users by itself. Then the tool will show you how those experiences influence UX regarding your business goals. As a result, you’ll get hard-to-understand emotions converted into easily approachable metrics.

![Experience Metrics in cux.io](/uploads/Experience_Metrics_700x425_054457ae43.png)

_<center>CUX recognizes, detects, and defines the behavioural patterns of your users. Then shows you how it influences UX regarding your business goals. The tool also converts hard-to-understand emotions into easily approachable metrics</center>_

## Data analysis automation that CUX will carry out for you {#data-analysis-automation-that-cux-will-carry-out-for-you}

- CUX will select recordings and [heatmaps](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/how-to-read-a-heatmap/) from visits that meet your goals (sales, purchase intention, newsletter subscription, form filling, document download, etc.). You don’t have to watch all the recordings anymore!
- CUX will track user frustrations and alert you when they reach a disturbing level. You don’t have to keep an eye on your data!
- CUX will prepare quick [segments](https://cux.io/blog/user-segmentation-cux/) for you that you can use to filter your data. You can also create your filters and save them into segments – so you will be able to come back to them at any time.
- CUX works retroactively, which means you can return to your data at any time and perform analysis even on historical data.
- CUX autocaptures events on your site. You don’t have to code each of them separately!
[
![CUX-drop-a-line-1.png](/uploads/CUX_drop_a_line_1_b4edf5d744.png)](mailto:team@cux.io)

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the [cux.io ](https://cux.io/) nourishing [newsletter](https://cux.io/newsletter/)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

session-replay-tools.png

A while ago, we came across the article “X Reasons Why You Need Session Replay Tools”. And we have only one thing to say: bull! 

4 reasons you DON’T need session replay tools

![Make analytics easier](/uploads/3_1_38346eaaab.png)

Therefore, if analytics is already on the agenda in your company, this article will only be a repetition of the issues you know well. However, if you are just about to start your adventure with data (or are at the beginning of it), it may turn out that the tips we have prepared for you, will be a valuable source of information, and might help you in drawing even more accurate conclusions.

We know very well how important analytics is for any company. But the fact that you simply have an analytics tool (like ours) doesn’t make you an expert. More important than having one, is actually understanding analytics, learning how to use it, and knowing how to look at the data properly and how to draw correct conclusions. If you can correctly analyze the data you see, you will have a powerful weapon in your hands against conversion drops and low sales.

## 5 tips how to upgrade your analytical skills

To help you a bit in upgrading from “amateur” level to “medium-pro” level, we have prepared 5 tips for you. Read them carefully and remember. If you want to, write them down on the post-it and hang over your desk, so you can come back to them at any time. We guarantee that with them in mind each following analysis will be easier, fuller and more insightful.

![5 tips to make analytics easier for you](/uploads/2_1_075dda2dfc.png)

### 1. Your biggest competition is your customer’s problems, not other companies.

We often face clients who come to us and say: “They (the competition) have implemented something and it works great. That’s what we want!”. We always tell these clients that it is not other companies that are the biggest competition. 

The biggest competition is the problems that our customers are facing on our website. Unclear path, errors in the form, too small font or images, lack of possibility to find required information. [All this makes the purchase process impossible to complete](https://cux.io/blog/show-me-your-website/). In this case, your potential customers simply give up and go to one of your competitors.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ It’s a situation that – we think – each of us has experienced. Full of emotions, joy and impatience, we have to face a difficult task – filling in the form. Unfortunately, it is the place that – in most cases (although not always, we do not generalize) – creates a bottleneck for the client. In our case, the insurmountable barrier was the choice of delivery date. The company didn’t predict that someone would want to choose a delivery date two weeks away from the date of purchase. The lack of such a possibility made the client decide to purchase from a competitor.

**REMEMBER!** Analyze users’ behavior on your website carefully, look for bottlenecks that appear on the purchase path. Make decisions based on data, not solutions introduced by your competitors.

### 2. Analyze entire visits.
We repeat this like a mantra: CUX, unlike other tools, allows you to analyze entire customer visits on the website, not just individual, single sessions. 

Okay, but what’s the difference? This is a typical question that may appear in the head of a person starting the adventure with analytics. Well, A VISIT on the website may include several SESSIONS. A session would comprise of all of the tabs opened by a client. It’s no surprise to anyone these days that a client, while buying on the Internet, will compare products, check their properties and prices in many tabs. 

In order to take a holistic look at a customer’s journey through our website, we need to analyze their whole visit, starting from the first tab they opened and ending with the one where they saw the thank you page after completing the purchase. Analyzing only individual sessions can give us an incomplete and sometimes even misleading picture of what is happening to the user on the site.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Imagine a customer who wants to buy shoes. He doesn’t quite know what he wants, he’s not sure about the color or material. He goes to the website and chooses the shoes he likes the most. Of course, it’s not one pair, but eight. He opens each product site in a separate tab to make it easier for him to compare them.

And now imagine that we analyze each open tab as a separate session. It would turn out that we have eight customers on the site, of which seven didn’t make a purchase! The conversion rate is only 12.5%. Not too much.

And now let’s analyze it as it should be – treat all eight tabs as a visit of one client. He made a purchase, and the conversion is 100%, because we know that there was only one client, not eight of them. Can you see the difference now?

**REMEMBER!** Analyzing separate sessions is like watching only 20 minutes of a movie – you’re getting familiar with the action, but you have no idea how it will end. In a qualitative analysis only, a full visit provides the full context of user behavior and helps to understand his interactions with your website.

![Analyze entire visit](/uploads/5_1_e30be27b7c.png)

### 3. Analyze all events, even the smallest ones.
There are cases of customers who want to analyze only the main steps on their website. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but remember – the more we dig into the path a client goes through on our site, the more details we see, and the more accurate decisions we can make. 

You can analyze all kinds of actions that the client performs on the site: click on a specific element like a link or a button, page scroll, form submission, focus in or out while clicking into a form field. You can also create your own custom event, based on the specific business model you’ve implemented on your site. 

Thanks to these details, we will be able to capture all those micro-events that can slip away from us when we look at the shopping path from a bird’s eye view.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Let’s assume that we look only at the three main “points” in our shopping path: entering the product page, going through the form, displaying the thank you page. Each of these steps will have its own conversion, but with so little information, it will be difficult for us to determine what the reasons behind the numbers are. If, however, each of these steps we will complete with additional events (such as marking approvals, filling in the data fields, choosing the date of birth), we will be able to know very precisely where the customers are facing difficulties.

**REMEMBER!** Analyzing only URLs, we lose information about all potential micro conversions and problems. Don’t hesitate to analyze whatever events you want.


### 4. Analyze the user’s natural path.
When designing a website or shopping path, we have an ideal vision in our mind. We give it to our customers and what turns out? That it isn’t so perfect for them. That something doesn’t suit them, that they don’t understand it, they think it’s unnecessary or they’re missing something. 

Don’t worry – there are as many paths as there are users. Don’t try to impose your visions on them, because the effect may be the opposite of what you would like to achieve – they will get pissed off and go to the competition (see TIP 1). 

Try to analyze this shopping path, which is natural for the customer, the most comfortable and the fastest. It may turn out that it is the customer who will show us the best solution.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Sometimes when designing materials for the website, we try to provide our clients with as much information as possible. This makes our website difficult to read and often the process of getting to know it unnecessarily long. You should definitely check how your customers navigate the site – it may turn out that placing Terms and Conditions at the very beginning doesn’t make any sense, because customers want to get to know them at the very end of their visit, while choosing the payment method.

**REMEMBER!** Assuming that clients go through your website with the paths that you have designed for them, is just wishful thinking. Users are like cats – they go wherever they want to go. So try to analyze each purchase path and react as quickly as possible if one is found to be impassable.

### 5. Analyze the purchase path step by step.
Don’t analyze in a hurry. Remember that sometimes it is worthwhile to spend 10 minutes more on analysis, but to be sure to go through all the data. Don’t skip any steps, each one of them can show you where to improve micro-conversion. Do not leave the analysis for later. The longer you wait, the more potential changes you will face. Analyze carefully, step by step, to be able to extract as much information as possible from the data.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Imagine that while analyzing the site, you focus only on the most important places from your point of view. This approach may result in skipping places that may be difficult for the customer. Be sure to watch all steps, because each of them can be a place where your potential client will resign from buying your product. Sometimes even the most well-designed element on the site can convert poorly, sometimes the most beautiful graphics can bring weak response rates, and we’ll only know that through careful data analysis.

**REMEMBER!** The devil is very often in the details. Don’t trust your gut feelings or the solutions implemented by your competitors – watch your customers’ behavior carefully – sometimes the best solutions are suggested by the users themselves.

We hope that these tips will brighten the analytical path in your head 😊. The insights you get from analyzing data can become a powerful tool in your hands to make changes for the better. Just remember to approach the data with an open mind, knowing your basic business goals.

![Think outside the box to make your analytics easier](/uploads/1_1_9470ec723f.png)

[![CUX-drop-a-line-1.png](/uploads/CUX_drop_a_line_1_b4edf5d744.png)](mailto:team@cux.io)

And if you would like to receive newest information from [cux.io](https://cux.io/) about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://cux.io/newsletter/).

Analytical-tips-and-tricks.png

The importance of analytics in business is no novelty in 2020. Experts say that everyone should implement analytics in their business as soon as possible.

The importance of analytics in business is no novelty in 2020. Experts say that everyone should implement analytics in their business as soon as possible (if you haven’t done so yet), companies should then try to gain as much knowledge from the data as possible, and make decisions based on numbers, not gut feelings. And that’s all correct, we couldn’t agree with these experts more.

5 tips to make analytics easier for you

>**Researcher’s comment:** when I think about feedback from clients I frequently come back to a, clichéd in the UX context yet very accurate quote by Henry Ford: “If at the beginning of my career as an entrepreneur I had asked clients what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. So I never asked.” Luckily, observing people in their natural environment provides us with an opportunity to learn the most about their real behavior. If there is such an opportunity, why not use it?

## What value does observing users provide? {#what-value-does-observing-users-provide} 

It’s pretty obvious that most time and money required for the development of a product is invested during the pre-production phase. But usually it’s a shot in the dark, as there is never a 100% certainty about how the market will respond. Below, you’ll find out when and what you should check in order to minimize the risk of designing a useless product.

## Why and when should you observe your users? {#why-and-when-should-you-observe-your-users}

### 1. Prototyping/creating mock-ups - save some time! 

An idea is sprouting up in your head, you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish and to what need of the market you want to respond, but what you lack is the validation from the potential users. That’s why, when you are creating mock-ups, you should confront your current ideas with potential users – thanks to that you will save time by introducing corrections before designing and coding your project.

> **Programmer’s comment:** when you show your team who they’re designing for, and how people actually use their product, it will allow them to save time and energy. This is because they will be able to see the real problems, which can usually be solved quickly. I know from my experience that it will boost team’s level of engagement and can solve a frequent problem: software developers and designers don’t understand project manager’s vision and get into disputes.

Obviously, when you create mock-ups not all details are polished, but you can definitely observe a few things:

- How users move around and use the functionalities you’ve proposed,
- Whether they search for information or CTAs where you located them, or are ignoring them,
- How the traffic on the website looks – whether the planned information architecture of the service is intuitive,
- whether the direction of development you’re headed is the right one or maybe you should introduce a small change that would better respond to customer needs.


At this point, a good solution is to give your users a, so called, free hand. Let them use their own computers so they’re not distracted, are not trying to be polite, or prove that “of course that you have a great product!” People, when tested, tend to act as if they were experts and accommodate to potential expectations. On the other hand, sticking to specific scenarios narrows down the way of using a product to what you imagine. And who knows how it might actually be utilized by users?

### 2. Redesign of existing product/website - leverage accumulated data! 

Yet another situation is the moment when the website advertising your product or service needs a redesign. This is a much simpler situation. Based on previous user behavior you are able to, for example, diagnose current problems or define the aim of the visit on the website. Very often, during workshops or interviews with clients, we come across a statement that they intentionally don’t test user behavior because the website will be redesigned anyway and there is no point in testing it. That’s a mistake! If you’re not planning to change line or character of your business, this is the perfect moment for testing:

- What your users interacted with so far?
- What are they not interested in the least?
- What draws their attention?
- What is causing problems for them?


Translating your observations into business goals will allow you to eliminate irrelevant content from your website, simplify user flow, and drop inessential features. You can knowingly build a new, much more usable website, not relying on your intuition and current trends, but on data.

### 3. Testing – how does the product fall when interacting with users.

In an ideal workflow, even if it has not been possible before, the moment for testing always comes. Usually, this is the first moment when, after hours of project team’s work, the product meets users. Then, you might come across a problem where to find testers. If you have a budget and time, the best option is to hire an agency for [UX research](https://uxstudioteam.com/ux-agency/). 

But let’s be honest – very often, there are no resources for that. Many UXers use opinions of their colleagues from different departments as support, which does not convey the real picture of how users will deal with the product.Researcher’s comment: to be clear, I’ve got nothing against hallway testing, it often is a good solution to quickly verify your idea. But it can’t be a replacement for confronting the idea with those who will actually be using our product. Especially at this stage.

##  5 reasons why you should use analytics tools for observing users online {#5-reasons-why-you-should-use-analytics-tools-for-observing-users-online}

1. Acquire hard evidence (concrete data, for example in the form of heat maps, will act as a perfect argument for the decision makers),
2. Conduct research even with a very tight budget and little time,
3. Conduct remote testing,
4. Enrich tests with users’ natural reactions and behavior,
5. Avoid the situation when your colleagues play the role of potential clients.

These are of course only some of the advantages that observing users give you. In the era of client-centric approach, and from a business point of view, it’s always good to know as much as possible about your users. It’s also important to be aware that you don’t have to be an analyst in order to start observing your users. You just need to know which tools you should use.

Originally published in polish [here](https://mamstartup.pl/produkt/11903/kiedy-badac-uzytkownikow-i-na-co-zwrocic-uwage-na-poszczegolnych-etapach-czesc-1). 

Translation: Magdalena Sobieszuk

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Observing your users before the production phase

Observing-users-before-the-production-phase.png

Everyone who works on projects knows that in the IT industry there’s no such thing as a finished product. 

Everyone who works on projects knows that in the IT industry there’s no such thing as a finished product. There are various reasons: sales is not going as you’ve expected, you don’t like some things, or your clients tell you to introduce some changes. The latter is a dream situation because you’re assured that what you change will meet their needs and usability requirements. However, you shouldn’t count on all of your users to give you feedback, let alone constructive one.