UX for Lean Startups

Chapter 11. Measure It!

In this chapter:

• Learn how to measure how much your UX changes are helping your business.

• Understand how to use A/B testing in conjunction with good UX practices to get great design outcomes and avoid local maxima.

• Learn how to successfully combine qualitative and quantitative research methods.

• Figure out how to avoid the most common pitfalls of using data to make product decisions.

• See which metrics you can use to measure user happiness.

I’ve talked a lot about qualitative research. But let’s step back and talk about quantitatively measuring design for a minute.

This is a topic that angers a lot of designers. If you are one of them, I’m going to ask that you bear with me. Measuring design results is a great thing. It can be incredibly helpful to you as a designer, and it’s even more helpful to the company.

But don’t just accept my word for it. Let’s break it down. If you still don’t agree with me at the end of the chapter, then write your own damn book and prove me wrong.

What Does Measuring Design Entail, Anyway?

Typically, when I’m talking about measuring design results, I’m talking about A/B testing.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the practice, A/B testing (sometimes called bucket testing or multivariate testing) is the practice of creating multiple versions of a screen or feature and showing each version to a different set of users in production in order to find out which version produces better metrics.

Figure 11-1. Even small copy changes can make a ...