11 UX Metrics to Track—Why KPIs are Important for UX/UI

Wise business decisions don't stem from emotions or feelings. Instead, they require a combination of concrete data and strategized thinking. Regarding UX/UI design principles, you need to look at the facts to determine what's effective—and what's not. Today, we'll explore eleven UX metrics to track that will help you determine the efficacy of your endeavors.

First, let's review the meaning of "UX metrics" and consider their integral connection to ROI. Later, we'll highlight some examples of KPIs in various industries and compare them with metrics so you can identify and track all of your business's most crucial goals.

What UX Metrics Measure

User experience (UX) refers to a user's satisfaction level while interacting with a website or application. Thus, UX metrics measure the effectiveness of UX design and enable businesses to quantify a user's feelings regarding the performance of a website.

UX metrics represent user satisfaction levels in tangible figures that are simple to determine, track, and analyze. Then, business owners can identify and eliminate pain points while enhancing areas that are already proving successful.

What is the Connection Between UX Metrics and ROI?

ROI stands for return on investment. Business owners are well aware of this critical consideration, balancing the profitability of an investment against its initial cost. The ROI calculation formula is:

ROI = Cost of Investment / (Investment Revenue − Investment Cost)

Determining the ROI of implementing a better UX/UI design involves considering the substantial implications of an improved user experience. For example, solid UX improves conversion rates, increases average session durations, elevates internal productivity, improves customer retention, boosts SEO, and maximizes the ROI of paid advertising.

By tracking the quantifiable results of better UX—such as the eleven we'll explore in the following section—business owners can better determine the ROI and make more effective decisions.

11 UX Metrics to Track in 2024

1. Time on Task
2. Task Success Rate
3. Navigation vs. Search
4. Nonverbal Communication
5. System Usability Scale (SUS)
6. Eye Tracking
7. Conversion Rate
8. User Error Rate
9. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
10. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
11. Engagement

#1 Time on Task

Time on task tracks how long it takes a user to complete an action. Since usability is a significant component of good UX, this vital metric provides insight into a website's ease and intuitiveness.

Business owners want users to find what they need as quickly as possible—and users want the same. A longer time on task may indicate user confusion or frustration.

How to Measure: First, define the task you wish to measure and identify the successful completion point (such as a Buy Now or Submit button.) Track and record the times. Add all the users' completion times and divide by the total number of users to determine the average time spent on a task.

#2 Task Success Rate

The task success rate calculates the ratio of users who complete an action successfully—any action, not just a conversion. Website owners can use this metric to ascertain their site's usability, organization, and helpfulness.

For example, eCommerce websites may track search actions (e.g., a user searching for and finding a pair of boots) to identify how effectively their search feature works.

Key Takeaway: A study from MeasuringU reports that a 78% task success rate is a suitable starting point. While it's always wise to continuously improve, anything below this figure requires immediate attention.

#3 Navigation vs. Search

Users take two main paths to meet their goals. The first is site navigation, including menus and content links, and the second is the search function. A considerable number of users opting to use the search box may indicate that site navigation needs to be less confusing, more precise, or consist of fewer steps.

How to Measure: Track customer behaviors with session replays or heatmaps. Then, to calculate each ratio, divide the number of completed tasks from searching or navigation by the total number of completed tasks. For example, if five customers opted to search out of 20 total completions, your search rate is 25%, and your navigational rate is 75%.

#4 Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication falls into the behavioral category of metrics for UX research. It involves studying facial expressions, hand gestures, eye movements, and posture to discern the emotional state of case study participants.

Key Takeaway: This metric has unique challenges and is best suited to in-person participant studies. While conducting field research, it's important to remember that body language can be culturally specific, easily misinterpreted, and often changes rapidly.

#5 System Usability Scale (SUS)

The system usability scale is a numbered ranking based on a questionnaire that allows users to answer questions on a scale from disagree strongly (one point) to agree strongly (five points). A higher score indicates better usability based on actual user feedback.

Key Takeaway: An SUS score is only the first step to improving UX—you'll still need to consult with a user research team to identify the "why" behind user answers and strategize with experienced UX/UI designers on how to address issues.

#6 Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is another behavioral UX metric that provides insight into a site's usability and organization from a user's perspective. As the name suggests, the technology uses lights and sensors to track eye movements, identifying areas of a website that capture more attention.

While surveys like SUS and CSAT indicate how users think they feel, cognitive science shows that users' interpretations of their feelings often differ from their intentions and abilities. Eye-tracking technology offers a unique window into users' subconscious cognitive patterns.

Key Takeaway: Eye-tracking testing for UX research involves a strategized approach and willing case study participants. It also doesn't paint a complete picture or provide insight into a user's thoughts, so don't omit surveys or verbal feedback to use in tandem with tracking studies.

#7 Conversion Rate

Conversion rates are used to calculate the percentage of users who take action or convert. Depending on the industry, a conversion event may be a purchase, a sign-up, or a form submission.

Key Takeaway: It's crucial to distinguish conversion rate from task success rate (#2). The latter isn't contingent upon conversion actions, so it offers more specific insight into a site's processes, ease of use, and navigation. Though the conversion rate can hint at site usability, it best reflects how well a site's design meets users' needs.

#8 User Error Rate

Measuring the user error rate, or the number of mistakes a user makes during their journey, reveals how well a design supports user-centricity. To have a solid UX, websites must feel intuitive, follow established industry standards, and appropriately accommodate user behaviors.

Method to Improve: Analyze error reports, gather user feedback, examine user heat map analytics, and conduct rigorous testing to identify pain points contributing to user errors. Then, take prompt action to correct the issues.

#9 Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The customer satisfaction score is a UX metric that aggregates user-provided feedback regarding your website's fulfillment of their expectations. Put simply: it's an average calculation of ratings based on customer satisfaction levels.

Remember that any user-provided feedback is subject to biases. Family members may complete your survey and give perfect remarks, while disgruntled customers may take out their frustrations with poor scores. It’s important to keep this in mind when strategizing based on CSAT and NPS (#10) scores alone.

How to Measure: There are numerous ways to measure CSAT, including custom-developed software or third-party surveys, metrics, and analytics tools. Depending on which you choose, users can provide more or less feedback.

#10 Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Similar to CSAT, a net promoter score assesses the likelihood of users recommending—or promoting—a website to friends and family. A high NPS score indicates that a site or app has a solid UX/UI design and suggests an increased level of customer loyalty.

How to Measure: Measure your NPS with one question. After the completion of a conversion event, add a simple, non-obtrusive pop-up that asks the user, "How likely are you to recommend this service/website/app/product to a friend?" and offer a rating scale from one (not likely) to ten (very likely).

#11 Engagement

Engagement tracks how user-friendly and enjoyable the UX is overall. Business owners can measure it in various ways, including clicks, session durations, page views, video interactions, comments, and shares.

Increased engagement often indicates that a website adequately meets customers' needs. Some metrics, such as comments on articles and shares, suggest user trust and loyalty.

Key Takeaway: Free analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) make tracking engagement effortless, so business owners must take advantage of these insights.

Are KPIs and Metrics the Same Thing?

While both KPIs and metrics enable business owners to evaluate performance and monitor growth, metrics concentrate on the success of processes integral to specific projects. They measure distinct progress in precise areas to highlight their performance within your business operations.

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. Thus, KPIs measure the composite success of multiple departments' endeavors concerning overall goals and objectives. They refer more often to achieving overall business goals (rather than the functioning of a particular project) and enable strategic, data-driven business decisions.

Due to these nuanced distinctions, many marketers use the terms interchangeably. In fact, inquiring of industry experts will result in a range of similar but varying answers to the "KPIs vs. metrics" question.

However, since metrics integrally influence the results of key performance indicators, the path to success for a business means identifying goals and discerning which metrics and KPIs are most beneficial to their achievement. Let's simplify this thought with some examples.

KPIs and Metrics Examples

The eleven UX metrics discussed earlier are essential to any business with an online presence, regardless of industry. To illustrate how metrics affect business KPIs, let's highlight some standard key performance indicators in the following areas:

1. Sales
2. Marketing
3. Project Managers

Note that these lists are not exhaustive, as KPIs vary according to each business's goals.

1. KPIs for Sales

• Annual contract value (ACV)
• Monthly sales growth
• New leads in pipeline
• Sales qualified leads (SQLs)
• Average ages of leads in pipeline
• Quote-to-close ratio
• Average sales cycle length
• Referral rate
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Average purchase value
• Lead-to-sale ratio
• Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV)
• Rep retention
• Average rep onboarding time

2. KPIs for Marketing

• Impressions
• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
• Search engine ranking/keyword rankings
• Organic sessions
• Backlinks
• Ad click-through rate (CTR)
• Cost per click (CPC)
• Bounce rate
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV)
• Return on marketing investment (ROMI)
• Email subscriber count
• Email open/CTR rate
• Social media engagement

3. KPIs for Project Managers

• Cost performance index (CPI)
• Budgeted vs. actual time
• Budget creation cycle time
• Budgeted vs. actual cost
• Frequency of budget iterations
• Delivery costs
• Schedule performance index (SPI)
• On-time completion percentage
• Employee churn rate
• Average billable rate
• Average cost per hour per employee
• Delivery margin
• Profitability by project
• Due date by project

By improving the specific UX metrics we discussed earlier, businesses can boost these and other KPIs, contributing to solidly founded company growth and long-term scalability.

Codepoet—UX/UI Specialists Here to Help

Tracking UX metrics and KPIs is simple, but improving them might feel monumental. Let us take that off your plate.

At Codepoet, our UX/UI designers and experienced web developers work closely to ensure your website has a strong foundation, looks great, and operates even better—the trifecta of custom web development.

If you're ready to take your UX/UI to the next level, reach out today. We're here to help you meet—and exceed—all of your business goals.