Taking a gamble on UX
ContentSquare's Duncan Keene on UX analytics providing the ‘how and why’ to help egaming brands democratise data and improve user experience
It seems that too many egaming brands have adopted a ‘gut instinct’ mindset when it comes to user experience (UX). They are gambling on mimicking competitors or using best practice to inform their optimisation strategies.
Lately egaming operators are being faced with a challenge: they cannot explain how and why their digital and app visitors behave the way they do.
And it isn’t to say the answer is impossible to find – traditional analytics simply do not provide definitive answers to questions such as ‘do you know why conversion increased or decreased on a given day?’
Most teams use traditional analytics tools to inform their optimisation decisions, but these technologies, such as Google Analytics or heat mapping tools, only provide a limited overview of visitor behaviours.
User frustration
The gambling sector has a volatile user base. ContentSquare analysis shows that the average bounce rate is more than twice as high (35% compared to 15%) than in other industries.
The regulated nature of the industry poses a significant challenge to UX. Users have to absorb several pieces of information and fill out forms which are often not designed with the customer in mind.
Users don’t know where to look, and they often become frustrated. This is where many gambling sites see customers drop off the radar.
UX as a key differentiator
UX is one way that brands in any sector can differentiate themselves, and this is especially true in egaming where gamblers visit multiple sites and services at once.
For an experience that is purely on a digital platform, UX acts as the bookmaker, guiding specific users towards making a bet, signing up or simply reducing the number of frustrated customers who can’t navigate the way they wish to.
There is a real need for data driven insight to cater for behaviours and inform an online or in-app experience that will not only increase average bet size and bet frequency, but also prevent frustrated visitors from leaving.
The importance of UX analytics
Mobile users take 21% less time to interact with the first page than desktop users. But why? The mobile egaming industry is booming, so digital operators need insight about this segment of users: why exactly do they take 21% less time, and what can be done about it?
Only 15% of visitors interact with inspirational content, so honing in on what kind of content visitors are interested in is key.
UX analytics go beyond traditional metrics and show insights such as float time and click recurrence which provide brands with a significant insight into user behaviour.
This means egaming teams are armed with more insight which enables smarter, more informed A/B testing.
The next generation of UX analytics provide brands with tools to identify the ROI of specific blocks of content. This provides detailed insight into what content drives more engagement, more bets and increases average bet size.
Optimisation teams need speed to insight. By giving them access to these UX analytics, they become empowered and no longer have to wait for insights to be sent by analysts, which ultimately slows down the delivery of a great user experience.
If egaming brands are to stay one step ahead of each other, they must deliver on a powerful, slick user experience and using UX analytics is the key. Those who are slow to surface to this insight will get left behind in the race to UX optimisation.