Observing the User Experience, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5

Competitive Research

Products don’t exist in a vacuum. For any given service or consumer niche, there is a whole ecology of competing products. Each takes a different approach in attending to users’ needs and desires. But which differences matter? Small differences in functionality, presentation, or identity can sometimes make a big difference in how people perceive a product. And sometimes they don’t matter at all.

Understanding which of your competitors’ strategies work and which don’t is critical to understanding what will work with your product—and thus where to focus your energy.

Business development groups or independent auditors perform traditional competitive analyses. Traditionally, a competitive analysis assesses a company’s ...