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A New View on User Experience

A NEW VIEW ON USER EXPERIENCE "Speed is more than a feature; speed is the most important feature. If your application is slow, people won't use it. - Fred Wilson, Principal of Union Square Ventures Speed is crucial to forming exceptional user experiences, but so many companies struggle to optimize all the different components of their increasingly complex websites. HOW IS USER EXPERIENCE MEASURED? Typically, DevOps teams measure user experiences through "technical performance" metrics, which evaluate load times of the Web page and its parts. TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE METRICS INCLUDE: 1. THE WATERFALL REPORT - The traditional view of Web performance, which measures how long it takes the network to deliver every resource referenced in the website HTML to the browser. 2. DOM AND PAGE LOAD EVENTS- An evaluation of what the browser thinks about how fast the page is loading. *DOM = Document Object Model TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE METRICS have been the core of Web performance optimization - UNTIL NOW. 40% of DevOps professionals name "LACK OF VISIBILITY INTO IN-SCREEN TRANSACTIONS" as a major concern in their monitoring (according to a 2012 study from TRAC Research). TO ADDRESS THIS CRUCIAL NEED, A THIRD TYPE OF USER EXPERIENCE METRIC HAS RECENTLY EMERGED. IT EVALUATES THE VISUAL USER EXPERIENCE, MEASURING WHAT THE USER ACTUALLY SEES AT DIFFERENT POINTS IN THE LOAD PROCESS. IN A WAY, IT'S LIKE A SET OF ROBOT EYEBALLS According to a 2012 study from TRAC Research, 61% of IT staff who are in charge of managing application performance in the pre-production stage want more visibility into the quality of user experience. VISUAL EXPERIENCE METRICS SHOW WHAT A USER WOULD SEE AS THE PAGE RENDERS ON-SCREEN. THIS IS THE ULTIMATE EMPIRICAL MEASURE OF SPEED. A TRUE VIEW OF USER EXPERIENCE. THIS GROUNDBREAKING NEW TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTED INTO ADVANCED WEB PERFORMANCE TOOLS (LIKE ALERTSITE BY SMARTBEAR) PROVIDES METRICS ON KEY INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS IN THE USER EXPERIENCE. VISUAL EXPERIENCE METRICS ALLOW DEVOPS TEAMS TO... EXAMINE PORTION OF THE BROWSER THE WEB PAGE AS IT'S RENDERING IN THE VIEWABLE MEASURE THE POINT AT WHICH THE WEB PAGE FIRST PAINTS FIRST PAINT - Time taken for the page to start rendering VISUALIZE TOP SEGMENT OF PAGE, VISIBLE WITHOUT SCROLLING ABOVE THE FOLD - Time taken until page starts rendering CAPTURE PICS OF THESE MILESTONES TO PROVIDE A VISUAL REFERENCE VISUAL EXPERIENCE METRICS INVESTING TIME AND MONEY ARE VALUABLE BECAUSE THEY INTO THE CONTENT THAT REPORT ON CONTENT THAT IMPACTS USER EXPERIENCE ACTUALLY AFFECTS USERS' WILL IMPROVE YOUR PERCEPTION OF PERFORMANCE. BOTTOM LINE BY POPULATING THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEMS FIRST. VISUAL EXPERIENCE ON TOP E-COMMERCE SITES FULL PAGE PAGE LOAD FIRST PAINT ABOVE FOLD DOM AMAZON 6.78 0.87 1.91 1.19 2.79 APPLE 1.26 0.92 1.30 1.05 1.34 DELL 2.02 1.47 1.88 1.12 1.81 STAPLES 4.82 1.63 3.38 0.89 3.15 WALMART 4.06 1.79 2.27 1.25 2.70 Data collected during December 2012 using real-browser performance monitors. Monitors in 5 different US locations ran tests every 15 minutes using AlertSite's visual user experience technology. View more at: http://bit.ly/WebSpeedAS. AMAZON'S LOAD TIMES A CRUCIAL MOMENT FOR THE E-COMMERCE SITE'S PERFOR- MANCE. FIRST PAINT FULL LOAD .80 SEC 5 SEC WHAT'S SLOWING US DOWN? DEPENDENCY ON 3RD PARTY CONTENT/ SERVICES 71% INCREASED AMOUNT OF DYNAMIC CONTENT 69% STREAMING MEDIA 52% MORE APPLICATIONS BEING ACCESSED THROUGH MOBILE 47% VARIETY OF WEB BROWSERS USED 32% Even with all these components slowing websites down, the demand for fast performing websites is HIGHER THAN EVER. DevOps folks need to take a CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT PERFORMANCE MEANS to the end user and what is most important when it comes to speed. YOU CAN'T OPTIMIZE YOUR BUSINESS WEBSITE BASED ONLY ON REALITY; PERCEPTION IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT. USER EXPERIENCE IS NOT A SINGLE METRIC. Visual experience metrics are not replacing technical performance metrics; THEY SIMPLY PROVIDE A MORE ROBUST AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT VIEW OF USER EXPERIENCE. Visual experience metrics are a new (AND VERY IMPORTANT) piece of the equation that makes up the real user experience. 89% ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE WEB MORE LIKELY TO PREVENT INCIDENTS MONITORING TOOLS IN PLACE ARE BEFORE USERS ARE IMPACTED *According to TRAC Research 70E "Perception is reality when it comes to a user's Web experience.' - Ken Godskind, VP of Monitoring Products, SmartBear Software INVEST INTO OPTIMIZATION EFFORTS THAT WILL ACTUALLY IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE! SOURCES: AlertSite http://www2.smartbear.com/2012Q4 TRACresearch_webinar_tofu_as_register.html http://www.trac-research.com/blog-end-user-monitoring http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/175739/AlertSite-Demonstration-of-New-Perceived-User-Experience-Metrics http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/175339/How-Fast-is-Your-Website-Really-Learning-More-from-AlertSite by SMARTBEAR http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/265405/5-Reasons-Web-Speed-Is-in-the-Eye-of-the-Beholder

A New View on User Experience

shared by smartbear-software on Feb 27
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We need to start evaluating what it is that users expect to see when they load a Web page. Instead of solely measuring the speed of the entire page, focus on the most important pieces. What are the mo...

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