How to Measure Usability with Only 7 Questions

Tales of Design & User Experience (ToDUX) #12 ⁂ Dear readers & friends, Smashing Magazine has published a new article of mine, which I co-authored with the fantastic Johanna Jagow. The article introduces Iɴᴜɪᴛ, a questionnaire (or instrument) for measuring usability. I developed Iɴᴜɪᴛ already during my Ph.D. studies and presented it at various academic conferences, but only recently… Continue reading How to Measure Usability with Only 7 Questions

On Properly Measuring User Experience

Tales of Design & User Experience (ToDUX) #11 ⁂ Dear readers & friends, The third, and final, article of my series on UX measurement, “Seven heuristics for identifying proper UX instruments and metrics,” has been published on the ACM Interactions blog. It all started with a discussion with a colleague on whether conversion rates are… Continue reading On Properly Measuring User Experience

New Year, New Updates

Tales of Design & User Experience (ToDUX) #7 ⁂ Happy New Year, readers and friends! 🎆 As we begin another year, I wanted to take a moment to welcome any new subscribers who are receiving this newsletter for the first time. I'm excited to have you join our community of design and user experience enthusiasts.… Continue reading New Year, New Updates

So, how *can* we measure UX?

Tales of Design & User Experience (ToDUX) #6 ⁂ Dear readers and friends, A new article of mine—“So, How Can We Measure UX?”—has been published in the ACM Interactions blog. It’s part two of a three-part series about the proper quantitative measurement of user experience. #2: So, How Can We Measure UX? This one will… Continue reading So, how *can* we measure UX?

UX vs. Product Design vs. UI: The Never-Ending Battle

Digital product design teams are often referred to as “the UX team” or “the UX/UI team,” which are terminologies that can significantly disturb a proper understanding of what UX and digital product design actually are and what a digital product design team does. For one, the user’s experience can’t be designed in the first place, and “doing UX” goes way beyond the scope of digital product design. For another, saying “UX/UI” isn’t meaningful since they’re neither the same nor separable concepts within a process; one can’t “do UI” without also “doing UX.” Generally speaking, digital product design covers design research, interaction design, and visual design, and it’s a much more accurate term for what’s commonly referred to as “UX” or “UX/UI.” We believe a proper understanding of terminology is essential for being able to deliver one’s best possible work as a designer.

We Need to Get Rid of Significance in A/B Testing

Tales of Design & User Experience (ToDUX) #1 ⁂ Dear Subscribers, Welcome to the first issue of ToDUX (= Tales of Design & User Experience; I’ve skipped the “& Other Stuff” for the acronym). But first things first—thank you all so much for joining my mailing list. I feel very honored. 🙂 As promised, I… Continue reading We Need to Get Rid of Significance in A/B Testing

User Experience Is an Elusive Thing, or Conversion Rate & Average Order Value Are Not UX Metrics!

In this article, I review six metrics commonly used to measure UX: conversion rate (CR), average order value (AOV), task success rate, time on task, Net Promoter Score® (NPS), and the System Usability Scale (SUS). CR, AOV, and NPS do not fulfil the definition of a UX metric while task success rate, time on task, and SUS do. Still, none of the metrics (alone) is suitable to reliably measure the UX of a digital product.

“Growth Marketing Considered Harmful” Published in i-com

I'm proud that my article "Growth Marketing Considered Harmful" has been published in the latest issue of i-com ‒ Journal of Interactive Media. Abstract: In today’s e-commerce industry, conversion rate optimization is often considered essentially the same as user experience optimization. In addition, there is a strong focus on quantitative experimentation, which some deem a… Continue reading “Growth Marketing Considered Harmful” Published in i-com

KPI-Centered Design

Despite evidence that employing a human-centered design (HCD) approach to product design yields a strong competitive edge, many companies neglect HCD or don't even consider it in the first place. One reason for that is probably that many who think they're working user-centered are practicing something entirely different: KPI-Centered Design. This article inquires into different forms of design processes, into the differences between proper HCD and KPI-Centered Design, and how a resonable compromise can look like: Formulating hypotheses based on evidence rather than just KPIs or gut feeling, and complementing quantitative experimentation with more qualitative insights.

5 Foolproof Conversion Rate Optimizations for Your E-commerce Business

When hearing conversion rate optimization, many think of the application of psychological principles such as social proof or scarcity. But before employing those, e-commerce businesses first have to get their fundamentals down—which many don't. In this article, I present five foolproof (and proven) ways to optimize your conversion rate: optimizing your checkout, getting rid of shipping costs (as much as possible), focusing on usability, getting rid of dark patterns, and gaining a deep understanding of your customers.