We all know how valuable data can be. But it can also be overwhelming. The tide of data we’re experiencing shows no signs of stopping.
How can you keep it manageable? How can you generate the right insights for a genuine, impactful, strategic digital transformation?
It is possible. By applying a user experience (UX) approach to gathering and interpreting your data, you can generate timely analysis that helps you improve your digital assets, increase customer satisfaction and ultimately transform your company.
1. Clarify your business requirements
If you’re not clear on what you’re trying to achieve, there’s a risk that scope creep or confusion will set in when you start looking at data. Set clear objectives and a deadline to avoid the dreaded analysis paralysis. Get these agreed with your internal and external stakeholders, so everyone’s starting off on the same page.
Here’s an example from a client who’s a B2B cloud security provider. Last year, Cyber-Duck was chosen to rebuild the client’s website from the ground up, with its customers at the heart of each decision.
One of the first steps was to clarify the objectives and KPIs for the redesign with the client. We ran workshops, primarily with stakeholders, that identified the brand and defined the ideal user.
These workshops identified that the client wasn’t communicating its value proposition clearly to its clients. They showed that the volume of content on the site meant users were confused about the company’s core offering. And from a brand perspective, it wasn’t clear to customers who the company was – but a landscape analysis showed the same was also true of its competitors. So at this initial stage, we also identified a market opportunity.
2. Source and qualify your data
Once you know what you’re trying to achieve, you can select the most meaningful data points to inform your goals.
You want to understand the why and the what. What will help you know that – and just that?
Otherwise, you risk spending precious time analysing data that’s a nice to have, rather than essential.
You’ll want to consider sources such as:
- User research
- Stakeholder interviews
- Competitor research
- SEO and PPC insights
- User paths (using a tool like ClickTale)
- Data logs
- App downloads
- Social media sentiment
- CRM data
- Customer service insight.
But that doesn’t mean you’ll choose to use all of these.
We worked closely with our client to identify what data could help us improve key user journeys and functionality. This is where the UX magic comes in.
We ran stakeholder workshops that aligned key user needs with business goals. These are part of our information architecture process – they’re called core model exercises.
The core model exercises helped us plot out key user journeys. (You can read more about them in our free UX handbook.)
We could then identify the sweet spots – the data points that gave us the most insight at each step of the journey, allowing our client to monitor user success at every stage and highlight pain points.
3. Balance quantitative and qualitative data
It’s important to check and enhance your qualitative research. We’ve found that a data-informed approach, rather than a data-driven one, allows for more nuance and space for human understanding. It gives you the why or how. User-centred design puts your client, not the data, at the heart of your project. It creates a richer experience based on what users really want.
For example, as part of this redesign, we conducted user research including card sorting exercises, giving us qualitative data that informed the site map and information architecture.
We then checked these findings using quantitative data on site usage. This gives you the who, what and where.
We also conducted a content audit on the site. By carrying out qualitative content analysis alongside analysing server logs and user paths, we highlighted that calls-to-action and site search needed improving.
4. Baseline your data
Before you start your project, try to baseline the data. You need to understand your goals and set up tracking so that you can see the impact. Before and after analysis is really helpful when you’re comparing conversions or sales – you can capture learnings and know they’re dependable.
It’s also worth checking the accuracy of your data. For our client, we conducted a marketing audit that identified key areas for improvement to SEO and analytics as well as lead generation. We recommended cross-device tracking, optimising Google Tag Manager and fixing referral source issues to help improve the accuracy of data tracked.
Measures like these will help ensure data is more meaningful, and therefore more useful, as you iterate and enhance a site after launch.
5. Adapt based on your learnings
Incorporate your learnings. Refine and adapt swiftly. Then measure again.
After taking all this information into account, we drew up lo-fi wireframes of the main pages, tested them and iterated to make responsive pages optimised for mobile.
Based on the learnings from the marketing audit, we also advised our client to shift focus on its PPC. We then defined a new organic and social strategy based on micro-moments – an approach that breaks down customer thinking and experiences across the entire buyer journey.
And the results?
In the first 12 weeks after the new site launched, our client saw:
- 71% increase in page views.
- 31% decrease in bounce rate.
- And most importantly, a 57% increase in relevant enquiries.
That’s not just data. That’s digital transformation.
