As a writer at HubSpot, I have unfiltered access to some of the most experienced user experience researchers in the industry. I also have 11 tabs open on end-user experience monitoring research.
What is End-User Experience Monitoring?
End-user experience monitoring, or EUEM, is the practice of tracking the experience of people using a product, application, website, or service. It allows IT professionals to identify and prioritize IT fixes before they lead to significant consequences.
Sometimes, companies may also run basic synthetic monitoring to enhance website performance. Synthetic monitoring, simply put, uses software to simulate user interactions at various levels.
How Does End-User Experience Monitoring Work?
It allows IT professionals to see how users interact with the end product and what pain points they may encounter. Tracking page load time, network latency, resource download speed, and others can help provide insights into overall website performance.
End-user experience monitoring is best used by teams that have applications or services in the digital experience industry. Since you primarily monitor how people interact directly with your website or app, you’ll want to monitor end-user experience when you have a team to address any potential issues.
Suppose you’re running a fast-food restaurant app with a rewards program for repeat customers. Given the importance of user experience, this is a situation where an end-user experience monitoring tool is invaluable.
Let’s say a customer has had a long day at work and is looking forward to using one of their rewards for a free chalupa but encounters an issue that prevents them from accessing the payment section. Now, suppose hundreds of customers are facing similar issues, and the support team cannot reproduce the problem on their own.
The support team can quickly use an end-user experience monitoring tool, such as Cisco AppDynamics, to capture real-time data on customer interactions with the app. They can then use that data to pinpoint the technical issues that could be causing the problem and work towards resolving them as quickly as possible. Chalupas for everyone.
Common End-User Experience Monitoring Metrics
To monitor end-user experience, user experience teams will consider several metrics that reflect the user experience, including:
- Response Time
- Page Load Time
- Bounce Rate
- Network Latency
- Performance
- Gateway
Andrew Meinert, Director of Systems Operations at HubSpot, uses response times to gauge the expected performance of our pages. Response time is the speed at which the server responds to a request, such as scrolling through a page or clicking on an internal link. High response times can indicate inefficiencies in server architecture.
This metric speaks for itself: how long does it take for a webpage to fully load? Page load speed is crucial for conversions: a B2B site that loads in one second has a conversion rate five times higher than a site that takes 10 seconds to load.
A high bounce rate can indicate several potential issues, all of which boil down to a lack of engagement. Perhaps your website isn’t mobile-friendly, so people leave after seeing a poorly built site on their phones. Maybe something is causing your site to crash. Perhaps the content doesn’t match the keyword that’s ranking high in search. Whatever the issue, this is the key metric to keep in mind when monitoring end-user experience.
Sometimes, your users might encounter performance issues that are not due to your website or application. Network latency helps identify performance issues that are outside of your control.
Sometimes, a crowded internet gateway or cloud storage can lead to performance issues and delays in loading time.
Performance metrics are not the only thing to monitor in the end-user experience. What other metrics should you monitor for the end-user experience?
Aside from your performance metrics, the best end-user experience monitoring tools allow you to keep an eye on other factors that may affect the end-user experience. Here are some of those factors:
- Web Application Data
- Geographical Data
- Device Type
Are your users on Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge? The web application you use can significantly impact performance, which is why many end-user experience monitoring tools support this for monitoring purposes.
This is obvious. If your servers are primarily located in one area, such as the United States, individuals outside that area will likely experience more difficulty than those within the area.
Depending on whether the user accesses your page or application via a desktop or mobile device, they may have a vastly different experience. For example, if you have mobile users with a high bounce rate but no desktop users suffering from the same issue, this likely means you have a problem with your mobile site.
End-User Experience Monitoring Tools
Choosing the right end-user experience monitoring tool simply depends on your organization’s needs. I will ask Andrew about the tools we use in the HubSpot team for end-user experience monitoring. Aside from the obvious CMS Hub, Andrew said: “We use Catchpoint for transaction monitoring and basic logic monitoring for artificial monitoring.” I will explain all these tools in detail, along with Cisco AppDynamics, one of the most popular end-user experience monitoring tools.
- CMS Hub
- Cisco AppDynamics
- CatchPoint
- Logic Monitor
Best for: Comprehensive website platform
CMS Hub is the only option on this list that allows you to build and host a website with access to end-user experience monitoring tools. This is the best platform to run your company’s website without missing anything.
Best for: Comprehensive performance monitoring
Cisco AppDynamics is one of the most popular end-user experience monitoring tools due to its power. You can access monitoring for any performance metric you want. Here are some examples from Cisco’s website: error rates, CPU usage, response times, request rates, uptime, and much more.
Best for: Transaction monitoring
As I mentioned earlier, the HubSpot team uses this tool for monitoring transactions. This means monitoring customer transactions to get a full picture of the customer experience. Catchpoint is a good overall tool to use as a preventive measure. It can be a bit challenging to set up since you have to build transaction steps manually, but it is effective in closely mimicking the user experience.
Best for: Basic artificial monitoring + AI insights
As mentioned above, the HubSpot team uses Logic Monitor for basic artificial monitoring and simply uses the tool as a reliable way to check if the service is running or not. Logic Monitor also has good AI integration from its website: “Advanced machine learning technologies automatically identify features in alert data to link disparate alerts into connected insights based on time, shared resources, environment, and other important features for enhanced alert data.”
Implementing End-User Experience Monitoring
It is time to apply your new knowledge and start implementing end-user experience monitoring into your IT operations workflow. Depending on where you are in your business, decide which of the tools mentioned above works best for you. From there, it is all about setup and delivery.
Source:
https://blog.hubspot.com/website/end-user-experience-monitoring
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