“What is User Experience?” – The problem with this question is that you cannot answer in a short and exhaustive statement. Different interlocutors will give different answers and definitions. Even for us at Onvey it is sometimes tricky to talk about user experience to our peers in product development, because the concept is sufficiently large so everyone can consider different factors, disciplines and solutions in it.

We noticed, for instance, that people in product management often reduce “user experience” to the “user journey” on their service. Why?

User Journey is User Experience applied to Product Strategy

• Because product people mainly focus on what is happening on the service itself, which means: on the user interfaces they have responsibility on.
• Because they build their product with agnosticism: they want it to perform no matter what the context is (the impact of brand awareness on conversion rates, the impact of marketing communications on the incoming traffic, etc.).
• Because the other factors that get in count in User Experience -brand awareness, marketing communication, human interactions for example- are nearly impossible to measure – you can’t put some figures on that easily. And Product People love Data.

– So, what goes their attention to?

Their attention focus on what can be measured and actioned by themselves. This is why, in product people’s definition of user experience, everything you will hear is about User Journey Optimization.

Today, we present different kind of tools useful to improve the typical user journey on your e-commerce / SaaS platform – or any other online service:

• User Research Tools that give insights to the Product Team. These insights nurture the roadmap in order to gradually refine the product, and deliver a better Experience in time.
• Real-time Experience Optimization tools that interact directly with the Users to make their experience better.

User Research tools

Good product decisions are based on wise and proven data. User research helps you understand works well, or what is wrong with your service, and the user experience it delivers. User research tools allow to gather this data, make it readable, and provide insights for your product / UX Strategy.

Analytics Tools

Detailed analytics on usage, behaviour and conversion for each user allow you to understand what can be improved in user interfaces, content and navigation schemes.

Spome analytics tools: google analytics, mixpanel.com, chartmogul.com …

Check out and try the UX-dedicated analytics tool we develop at Onvey: Onbrowse.io!

User Testing Tools

User tests allow you to visualize in details the user journey, which makes you able identify friction points. Eliminating those pain points improves user happiness with your interfaces and leverages customer retention.

A few user testing tools: usrtesting.com, crazyegg.com …

Read also: Product Testing: 3 false good methods killing your strategy

Satisfaction Measure & Feedback Collection Tools

While analytics & user testint allow you to deduce what you must do to improve the typical user journey on your service, another interesting option to nurture your roadmap is simply to ask your users how they perceive your service. In addition to give you insights on their current satisfaction, you will know what they really expect from your product now and in the coming months.

Some forms/collection tools you can use to run those surveys: typeform.com, surveymonkey.com, google spreadsheet …

Read also: 5 ways to get qualitative feedback from your existing users

Tools for real-time User Journey Optimization

Now, if you think you have enough material for the coming weeks in your current product roadmap, then you should work on real-time optimization. This will allow you to optimize again conversion rates by creating more interesting experiences for your users. As well as most of the previous examples, and although this is not necessarily their primary use, the following tools can be used for user journey optimization.

A/B testing Tools

A/B testing tools allow you to randomly personalize the display of your pages to test some interface modifications or opportunities, then decide what actually makes the use better, based on engagement figures. Used regularly, this technique helps to gradually optimize performance rates, which testify from a better user journey.

Some A/B Testing tools: abtasty.com, optimizely.com, beampulse.com …

Personalization / Contextualization / Recommendation Tools

Whatever the situation, users always appreciate when they find their way easily through your service, and when they feel you take care of them. Personalization technologies help for that. They may be useful in several contexts:

• Offering help during the different steps of the user onboarding –  for instance, for SaaS products
• Offering targeted product recommendation – for e-commerce platforms
• Personalize content according to audience to ensure relevance and avoid over-abundance – for online medias

Some examples: nosto.com, segmentify.com …

Gamification Tools

Gamification may take a decisive role when a user has to go through a learning or discovery phase – for instance, for the onboarding phase of every SaaS product. Gamification Tools use game elements and principles -humans are predisposed to appreciate to play- to help you keep the user’s attention during a process, and positively predispose him for the following steps.

Some Gamification Technologies: rocketfid.com, getbadges.com …

Conversational Tools (the Human touch)

The previous tools may help you improve the performance on every of your KPIs. But don’t forget that nothing can replace a human contact sometimes. Especially in crucial situations: when a user struggles somewhere, when he hesitates to opt for your solution …

Conversational Tools (live chat, call-me-back, …) allow you to deliver this human touch, at the right moment. Although they require a daily investment from your team, they can dramatically improve your conversion rates and the user satisfaction.

Some Conversational Tools examples: iadvize.com, zopim.com …

Of course, we don’t forget the Chatbots! Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified about our future articles!