Web Analytics + User Testing: "What" plus "Why" equals Actionable Insight

Our newest offering, HippoTango, is all about service integration. The theory is that when each service works with and supports the others, the results are greater than the sum of the parts. It's a simple enough concept, but how does it work in practice?

As a very simple example of how HippoTango works, let's look at how Web Analytics and User Testing can work together.

Imagine you're using Google Analytics to monitor your web traffic. You notice that one of your product pages has an alarmingly high bounce rate. What do you do?

If you're using Analytics alone, you might have a hard time figuring out how to fix the problem. That's because Analytics only tells you what is happening on your website; it doesn't tell you why.

If, on the other hand, you run some quick user tests focusing on the problem page, chances are you will soon discover why your customers are abandoning that page. Once you know the full “what and why”, correcting the problem is a simple matter.

Note that this doesn't mean User Testing is “better” than Analytics. After all, it was the information revealed by Analytics that led you to focus your user tests on the appropriate page. Without Analytics, you may never have known the problem existed.

To get the compete picture of how your website can be improved – to gain actionable insight – you need to use both services. And you need to integrate them seamlessly, so that each service reinforces the other. That's what HippoTango is all about.