Usability Vs User Experience

Creating a website or app takes a lot of time and consideration, with your customer’s needs at the top of the priority list. To make your website or app the best it can be, you want it to be accessible, user-friendly, convenient, and fast. Two phrases you hear when discussing the perfect product is usability and user experience (or UX), often used interchangeably. While both usability and UX are important, they are different. Knowing the difference between these and using them both can help you achieve your website goals, so let’s discuss how they stand out from one another and how you can use them.

Usability vs User Experience:

Usability refers to how a customer can reach a specific goal, while user experience encompasses their whole website experience. Both of these are important to keep in mind, and they work together to create an overall pleasant website experience for your customers.

Usability:

Usability is important because it allows customers to reach specific goals quickly and easily. For example, how easy is their checkout process? How quickly can they find your blog? Is it simple for them to find the product in the size or color they want? The easier these small tasks are for them, the more sales you will drive and customers you will please.

Usability testing is a great way to get feedback about what features your customers are satisfied with, and which ones could use some work. Typically, these consist of a series of tasks that you ask the users to complete. While they are trying to accomplish these tasks, have them take notes on aspects that are confusing or difficult, and what was easy or enjoyable for them. If you want to try using an automated process, there are many options with varying degrees of feedback. Google PageSpeed Insights and Website Grader are free options that will give you a breakdown of what you are doing well, and what areas need work.

User Experience:

User Experience, or UX, refers to the overall experience the customer has while shopping with your brand. While usability’s job is to make the customer easily complete one task, UX focuses on customer satisfaction before, during, and after their shopping experience. Ask yourself (or your customers) questions like how easy it was to find what they were looking for, how engaged they were in the shopping process, if they enjoyed shopping on your website, and would they recommend you to a friend or family member. Keep up with tracking things such as website speed, crashes, or any bugs that might be making their experience less than pleasurable.

Although they are different, usability and UX both have the customer’s happiness in mind. Keep open communication with your customers to find out ways that you can improve your site or app for them. Come back next week to learn more about how you can run your own usability tests!