Facts and Stats

What the User Experience research shows

What users think and say they will do in focus groups and what they actually do in usability tests often differs.
(Eysenbach and Kohler, 2002)

Companies focused on customer-experience design outperformed the S&P 500 by a 10-to-1 margin.
(Peer Insight, 2007)

70% of software buyers rate user adoption as more important then features or functionality.
(Sand Hill Group & Neochange, 2008)

Faulkner (2004) has conducted new empirical research showing benefits from increased sample size. It is better to do usability testing with a higher sample size. The new magic number is 15 users, not 5 users (Nielsen & Landauer 1993).

More experienced usability practitioners tend to discover more problems in an expert review than less experienced practitioners.
(Huart, Kolski, and Sagar, 2004)

Users spend almost 40% of their computer facing trying to get things to work or work better.
(Ceaparu, Lazar, Bessiere, and Shneiderman, 2004)

Users know where advertisements are and have learned to avoid them.
(EyeTrackIII, September, 2004)

Well written copy has significant implications for user satisfaction and effective message distribution.
(Morkes and Nielsen, 1998)

Design is a key determinant to building on-line trust with consumers.
(Sillence, Briggs, Fishwick, and Harris, 2004)

Users pay attention to what they are paying attention to. Sometimes things that are quite obvious to the designer are invisible to the viewer/users.
(Simons and Chabris, 1999)

Information overload has replaced information scarcity as an important new emotional, social and political problem.
(Shenk, 1999)

A good (user) experience correlates with a willingness to repurchase a product or service, a reluctance to switch and a likelihood to spread a positive word-of-mouth endorsement.
(Forrester Research 2009)

A whopping 93% of online business users have encountered problems with B2B websites. The most prevalent website shortcomings include signing up for a service (85%), researching a product (81%) and executing transactions (75%). -Motive Communications, July 2001

63% of software projects exceed their budget estimates, with the top four reasons all relating to product usability: frequent requests for changes by users, overlooked tasks, users' lack of understanding of their own requirements, and insufficient user analysis communication and understanding. -Leaderer & Prassad, 1992

Recent estimates show 80% of software life-cycle costs occur during the post-release maintenance phase. -Pressman 1992

Studies by Forrester Research estimate that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost from a site as users can't find data and that 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience. 2002

45% abandon web sites with poor navigability, slow download times, or confusing content. -Boston Consulting Group, March 2000

35% of people who experienced problems on a particular site left that site for another. -Accenture Consulting, 1999 Holiday E-Commerce, February 2000

60% of interactions with "search" fail. -Jakob Nielsen, The web usability guru: 2001

65% of users have problems with navigation. -NetSmart 2000

Primary motivations for purchasing online: Convenience, 43%; price, 15%; selection, 13%; other, 8%; don't know, 21%. -Investor's Business Daily, 2000

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1999 holiday shoppers asked those consumers who did not make a purchase online to list reasons why they did not buy (multiple answers): Concern of return hassles, 39%; products not available, 32%; worry of gifts not arriving in time for the holidays, 31%; privacy concerns, 26%; dislike of shipping and handling charges, 20%. -Daily News Record, 2000

The most important drivers for repeat online sales (more than one answer possible): Quality of customer support, 65%; on-time delivery, 58%; shipping, 49%; product representation, 49%; posted privacy policies, 45%; ease of ordering, 24%; information, 24%; site looks/navigation, 23%; selection, 22%; price, 19%. - BizRate.com, 2000

Most common complaints among Internet users (multiple answers): Sites are too difficult to navigate, 87%; slow downloading, 84%; confusing home pages, 61%; boring content, 56%; lack of interactivity, 38%; don't like having to use plug-ins, 37%. -NetSmartAmerica, 1999

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1999 holiday shoppers asked those consumers who did not make a purchase online to list reasons why they did not buy (multiple answers):

  • Concern of return hassles, 39%;
  • Products not available, 32%;
  • Worry of gifts not arriving in time for the holidays, 31%;
  • Privacy concerns, 26%;
  • Dislike of shipping and handling charges, 20%

According to a study of 3,900 consumers, the most frequently cited concerns of U.S. online customers (multiple answers): Shipping costs too high, 53%; need to try on for fit, 38%; prices too high, 37%; not appropriate for large items, 37%; not appropriate for luxury items, 27%; want to see/feel item, 23%; not appropriate for perishable items, 21%; concern credit card information can be stolen, 19%. -Ernst & Young, 2000Online shoppers to five ecommerce user needs:

  1. Close-up images of products
  2. Stock availability information
  3. Product comparison reviews
  4. A search function
  5. A toll-free number for customer service

Source: 2001, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Columbus, Ohio; Base: 547 online shoppersA study by Zona Research (2000) found that 62% of Web shoppers have given up looking for the item they wanted to buy online.

67% of web shoppers click out of the shopping cart before completing a purchase. -Net Effect, June 1999

Miller on response times (1968) still considered valid:

  • .01 second limit for system to appear to be instantaneous (ie applets for screen movement)
  • 1 second limit before users flow of thought is interrupted (though delay would be noticed)
  • 10 seconds limit for keeping the users attention focused (so 10 seconds max. for a page to load)