Benchmarking
Measuring experience against standards.
What It Is
Measuring a product's usability and experience metrics against established standards or competitors. Without a benchmark, "our product is easy to use" is an opinion. With one, it's a fact you can track.
Common Benchmarks
SUS (System Usability Scale) — a 10-question survey with decades of comparative data. SUPR-Q — standardized percentile rankings for user experience. Task success rates — did people complete what they were trying to do. Time-on-task — how long it took. Error rates — how often things went wrong.
How It Works
Select metrics aligned to your research questions. Collect baseline measurements. Compare against industry norms or previous versions of your product. Track changes over time to see if design changes actually moved the needle.
What It Produces
Quantified experience scores with percentile rankings against industry. Trend data showing improvement or regression. Objective evidence for investment decisions — "our SUS score went from 58 to 74 after the redesign" is the kind of statement that gets budgets approved.