subject: Web Performance – End User Experience Management [print this page] Web Performance End User Experience Management
Web operators rely on two main types of tools to make sure their sites are functioning properly. The first, called synthetic testing, simulates visitor requests at regular intervals to make sure the websites is working. The second, real user monitoring (RUM), analyzes actual traffic to measure responsiveness and detect errors.
A visitor's experience is the performance, availability, and correctness of the site they visit. We will define it as a measure of how accurately a user's visit reflects the visit its designers intended. We refer to the task of managing this experience as End User Experience Management, or (EUEM).
We will make the distinction between EUEM and usability. Usability, which we measure with WIA and usability testing, looks at how users tried to use the site. If visitor did something wrong if they couldn't find a particular button or if they entered their hat size in the wrong field they weren't doing something the designers intended. While that issue is, of course, vitally important to web operators, it's a usability problem.
Here we are concern with how well the website delivers the experience the designers intended. Problems may include pages that took a long time to reach a visitor or rendered too slowly in the visitor's browser, websites that broke because third party components or plug-ins that did not work, and content that wasn't correct or wasn't shown on the screen properly.
At its simplest, EUEM is about answering the question, Is the site down, or is it just me?" Every site operator has experienced a moment of sudden dread when they try to visit their own site and find that it's not working. If you implement EUEM correctly, you will know as soon as there's a problem, and you will know who's affected.
Why care about Performance and Availability? Falling to meet visitors' expectations can hurt your business.
A site that's unresponsive or plagued by incidents and unpredictable availability has lower conversion rates.
Sites that deliver a consistently poor end user experience are less likely to attract a loyal following. Poor site performance may also affect perception of your company's brand or reputation.
You may be liable for damages if you can't handle transactions promptly, particularly if you are in a heavily regulated industry such as finance and healthcares.
Poor performance may cost you money. If you have a formal contact with users, you may be liable for refunds or service credits. Slow or unavailable sites also encourage customers to find other channels, such as phone support or retail outlets, that cost your organization far more than handling requests via the web. Once visitors try those channels, they may stick with them, costing you even more money.
