What are users typically able to achieve on each page with your old site, and, what do you want them to achieve in the future? So, what do you do with this data?īy using these two types of data, you can start to see some consistent trends in user behavior. How many clicks did a particular button get? How many users land on this landing page as opposed to that one? Did this user enter the site organically, or were they referred? We can understand what the user did on the site, as opposed to the behavioral evidence that may have produced the action.īoth types of data are extremely relevant and paint a very compelling picture when paired together. Quantitative data lets us know if something is working. Traditionally, this is everything Google Analytics offers you (although, in recent years, Google has been trying to step up its qualitative capabilities within the platform). Quantitative data is numerical and can be used for statistical analysis. This type of data is likely what you are more accustomed to. While this type of data is incredibly useful, it has to be taken into consideration with more traditional, numerical data in order to paint a complete picture of user behavior. It allows to identify and relieve friction points. (If you’re interested in learning more about heat mapping tools, Morgan, one of our developers at IMPACT, wrote a great article comparing some of the most popular heat map tools.)Īnalyzing qualitative data can really help refine our undestanding of the user experience. It’s a quick way to understand what needs to remain on a website and what can be reworked. Heat maps allow you to see exactly which page elements users are responding to. Heat maps can also show you where a user is clicking, even if where they are clicking is unclickable. Heat maps offer a generalized breakdown on user behavior, which is something quantitative data (more on that in a minute) fails to show. In other words, which page elements are causing them to pause and really take an interest. I’m not just talking about what they click on, but how far they scroll, what they hover over, what they highlight, and what they try to click on. I’m able to better understanding what users are doing once they land on a particular page. This representation of qualitative data is exceptionally helpful to me as a designer. This type of data is collected through observation and produces results that approximate and characterize. Qualitative dataĪs a designer, qualitative data is my favorite, because it’s so darn visual. We do this with two specific types of data: qualitative and quantitative. You have to understand their current behavior before you ask them to change it. Your current website, as dated, tired, terrible, and ugly as it may be, is your window to understanding how your current users are interacting with your brand. In order to understand your users, and in turn, make educated assumptions about their behavior, you need to know what they are currently doing. In every website process, there is a line-item called a brainstorm, which is vital and not to be dismissed as the purview of creatives.īrainstorms need to have equal participation from all parties to be successful, but we’ll get into that later. Collaboration: How does it actually work? Let’s break down what it really means to collaborate during the website process and what you can do to make your personal preferences known and be reflected in the final product. Your web team needs to allow room for personal preference in the process, but it has to be done intentionally and at the right time. So, how do you effectively marry hard and fast historical user data with subjective opinions on design to create a website for and about your users while still maintaining a representation of your brand that makes you feel proud? However, aesthetics are inherently subjective. It’s critical to understand historical user behavior, and use it to best predict how they will interact with future layouts, but you can’t ignore the X factor that brings a website to life: aesthetics. There is actually a lot of hard data that goes into every website redesign. In the presence of design and development professionals, why do your opinions matter? And, since you need to be focused solely on your users, your ideas around how your brand is presented are null and void, right? Ok, but what if my users really like highlighter yellow, but I can’t stand to look at my own website because of it?įor business owners entering into the website redesign process, personal preference can feel like taboo at this point. I know, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Your website isn’t about you, it’s about your users.
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