Designing with Data: Using Analytics to Predict What Your Users Want
When you’re tasked with designing a product, your primary concern is how to make it as user-friendly as possible. You want your users to have an easy time navigating through the website, app, or any other interactive medium your design features. However, what many designers often overlook is how to make sure that the end users get exactly what they need. What if there was a way for you to know what kind of features they like so that you can tailor your designs accordingly? Analytics comes to the rescue in such scenarios, helping you predict what users want from your designs and saving you from potential failure. Many a times designers are left clueless about which features their target audience prefers and which ones they find useless. It is at such junctures that data analytics comes into play, providing designers with insights on where they need to make changes and improvements in order to appeal more to the end user.
What is User Analytics?
User analytics is a marketing technique to track and analyse user behaviour on the website or app to understand how users interact with your product. It allows you to collect data regarding the number of users, their engagement, the medium used to access your product, the number of pages viewed by each user and their average session duration. At its core, user analytics is about data. Data about your customers, their behaviour, and their needs. It’s a set of numbers that help you to better understand your customers, their behaviour, and needs. User analytics can be divided into two categories: — Behavioural analytics that focuses on how users interact with your product, and — Descriptive analytics that reveals information about the user, such as their location, demographics, and the device they used to access your product.
How to use analytics when designing with data?
If you’re designing a new feature or making changes to an existing one, then you can use data analytics to determine how useful that feature is for your users. This way, you’ll know whether to keep or discard the feature based on how engaged your users are with it. — For example, if you’re designing an online store, you can use data analytics to understand how many users are adding items to their carts but not actually purchasing anything. This allows you to focus on making changes to your checkout process so that more users are satisfied with the experience and end up buying more items from your website. — Another example is designing a blog. If you’re adding a new feature like a poll, you can use data analytics to understand how many users are interacting with the poll and what they think about it. This way, you get insights on how useful the poll is and whether you should add more features in the future.
Which features should you focus on?
You should focus on features that are core to your product’s functionality. For example, if you’re designing a music app, a feature that allows users to create playlists would be a critical one since it would let them create music using their favourite tunes. You wouldn’t want to discard such a feature just because a few users are not using it. — You should also focus on features that are used often by your users. If you notice that only a small percentage of your users are engaging with a certain feature and that the rest are ignoring it, you can consider removing it altogether. A small investment in your product at this stage can save you from facing a lot of trouble later.
How to make your product easier to use?
If you’ve discovered that your users are struggling to use a certain feature, then you can opt to simplify it. This will make the feature more accessible to a wider audience, resulting in higher user engagement and satisfaction with your product. — For example, if you’re designing a messaging app and you notice that your users are facing difficulties while attaching multimedia files like images, videos, etc., you can simplify the process by letting them add files directly from their device’s gallery. — Another example is designing a website for investors. If you notice that the process of registering on the website is fairly complex, you can simplify the process by making the fields on the registration form less lengthy and collecting only the relevant information. This way, the process becomes easier, and more users are likely to complete the process and start investing in your product.
How can you make your product more engaging?
If you’ve noticed that a lot of users are abandoning your product or using it only occasionally, you can make your product more engaging by adding new engaging features. This will help you retain your existing users and attract new ones as well. — For example, if you’re designing a website for students, you can make the experience more engaging by featuring a blog that includes useful tips and tricks for students. Such a move will help you retain your existing users and attract more new ones by making the experience more engaging.
Conclusion
The key to a successful design is understanding your users and what drives their engagement. User analytics is a great way to understand how your users are engaging with your product, where they drop off, and what they would like to see more of. With a strong understanding of your users’ needs, you’ll be able to design products that are truly user-friendly. The more you know about your audience, the more likely you are to create a product that meets their needs and expectations.
