User Experience Statistics in 2024 (How to Improve UX Design)
In the digital-first world, executives that have benchmarked UX and aligned business goals with product design and development are increasing customer satisfaction, revenue, and brand loyalty. At the same time, businesses neglecting user experience lose the opportunity to convert users into customers. Even more, they leave a long-lasting bad impression of their brand among users.
The good thing is most businesses have reached the point where they’re aware of the importance of user experience. Companies understand that their website or app is key to engaging users. As a result, brands are investing more time and resources into getting quality UX.
Read on to learn the latest UX statistics and discover how the UX industry is transforming. That is — the decision-making processes of organizations are successful because of their user experience practices—common UX challenges faced by organizations. And the opportunities ahead.
5 Essential UX Statistics Revealing the Importance of User Experience
- Every US$ 1 invested in UX design results in a return of US$ 100 (ROI = 9,900 percent).
- Companies with top design practices experience 2x faster growth than the industry-benchmark growth rate.
- First impressions are 94% design-related. Up to 75% of users trust an aesthetically pleasing website.
- 80% of users abandon a site that doesn’t display correctly on their smartphones.
- Only 1% of users say the ecommerce site interface meets their expectations.
Website Speed is the #1 UX Expectation For Internet Users
1. Website loading speed is rated the highest in the UX hierarchy, with over 75% of internet users considering it important.
(Brainfood)
Brainfood’s user experience statistics highlight there is a difference between the actual website loading speed and the perceived speed.
And it is the perceived speed that drives engagement, conversions, and revisits. For context, 95% of internet users who perceived fast loading time say they are likely to return to the site vs. 62% of those who perceived slow loading time.
Take a look at the image depicting how internet users perceive website speed depending on different states of mind:
The question, however, is: how to improve the perception of speed? Well, it involves creative and clever UI design.
For instance:
- Reconsider the FID (First Input Delay), from 300-350ms to less than 100ms.
- Put the user in Active mode by creating instant interactions on the website and give the illusion of continuity to the users.
- Aim for smooth and optimized animation.
- Develop a content strategy, image strategy, and so on.
While improving the perception of speed is crucial to driving engagement and conversions, it isn’t to say that actual speed doesn’t matter. In fact, more than half of smartphone users abandon the site if the page takes more than 3 seconds to load.
2. Sites that load in less than 1 second see 3x more conversions than a website that loads in up to 5 seconds.
(Portent)
Additionally, Portent’s UX statistics reveal the difference between conversion rates of sites that load faster and that load slowly is even higher. For instance, a B2B site that loads in less than a second sees 5x more conversions than a B2B site that loads in 10 seconds.
For ecommerce (B2C) sites, the correlation between website loading time and conversion is lower, yet it is sizable. An ecommerce site loading in less than a second sees 2.5x more conversions than one loading in 5 seconds.
Portent’s UX statistics guide concludes that sites should aim for 1-4 seconds of page load time.
You should aim for 1-2 seconds of load time to improve conversion rates — given the average ecommerce conversion rates decrease by 0.3% for every additional second your website takes to load.
Portent’s UX statistics indicate ecommerce website that loads in less than 2 seconds sees the highest conversion rates (3.05%). The conversion rate falls to 0.69% if an ecommerce website takes more than 4 seconds to load.
The same study also points out that 47% of customers expect a website to load in less than 2 seconds.
Here’s a chart showing the correlation between page load time and conversion rates:
3. Google site speed is now an important ranking factor, unlike in the past.
(SE Roundtable)
Like before, loading time isn’t the deciding factor for ranking on Google. But SERoundtable’s recent UX statistics indicate that slow-loading websites will be affected by recent Google ranking algorithms updates.
So, web designers must work on website speed to improve conversions and drive revenue per pageview. Also, it is crucial to rank higher on Google.
Nevertheless, it is best to take time to tweak those milliseconds because slow-loading websites cost you real dollars.
Studies aside, look at the real examples if you are wondering about the correlation between conversion rate and website speed.
A report from the Walmart Group states the company increased its conversions by 2% for every 1 second of improvement in load times and 1% increase in revenue for every 100ms of improvements.
And Why Exactly Does User Experience Matter?
4. Every US$ 1 invested in UX design results in a return of US$ 100 (ROI = 9,900 percent).
(Forrester)
Forrester’s user experience statistics estimate such high returns are based on a combination of factors.
A good user experience results in lower customer acquisition costs, lower support costs, increased customer retention, and increased market representation.
To give you an idea of poor UX design — in the ecommerce space alone — some 35% of the money is left on the table simply because of poor checkout flow and design.
For context, online retail statistics highlight that ecommerce sales accounted for 19% of total retail sales, amounting to approximately 4.9 trillion U.S dollars.
Using this rate, it was a loss of US$ 1.4 trillion in the ecommerce realm — given retailers can improve conversion rates by 35% by improving their UX design.
Another great example indicating the relationship between good user experience and conversion rates comes from the founder of The UX School, Raffaela Rein. In a survey to Amazon, Raffaela said, “when we first started using UX design as a business practice, we grew revenues by 895% in the first three months.”
5. 32% of customers walk away from a brand they love after one bad experience.
(PwC)
PwC’s UX statistics state that 59% of US customers will abandon a brand they love after several bad experiences, and 17% say they walk away after one bad experience.
And when it comes to Latin America, as much as 49% of users say they abandon a brand they love, even after one bad user experience.
PwC’s user experience statistics point out that bad customer experiences occur because of automated interactions, as pointed out by users.
For context, 71% of US customers say they prefer talking to a “human” instead of a chatbot. In fact, automated interactions are perceived as poor customer service by users.
Some 46% of internet users say they will abandon a brand if the customer service agent is not knowledgeable. And only 36% say the customer service agents understand their needs.
Customer experience is a significant part of the overall user experience. Many users expect humans when interacting with customer service. And it is only possible to retain existing customers with the human element.
So, your focus should be on both fronts. First, increase the human element at every point of interaction.
Second, minimize the friction to provide seamless payment and a great experience across all platforms, so the users do not need to interact with the brand.
That is to say, leverage the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve all areas of your websites or apps for a seamless user experience. And not only the elements related to customer interactions fronts.
To sum up some other general UX stats from PwC into a single statement: customers will even pay more as long as organizations go beyond and bring the best elements of people, technology, and service.
6. Companies with top design practices experience 2x faster growth than the industry-benchmark growth rate.
(McKinsey)
McKinsey’s user experience statistics report that the companies that scored top-quartile McKinsey Design Index scores (meaning top design practices set by McKinsey) outperformed industry-benchmark growth rates by almost two times.
McKinsey user experience stats also reports it is essential for companies to define the role of the Chief Design Officer in a new manner.
For instance, companies should focus on bringing transformation and not just executing old design practices.
McKinsey’s Business Value of Design, a recipient of the Red Dot Design Award, recommends these transformation practices in the organization:
Transform user experience:
- Organizations should support new business models; for instance, leaders could increase the number of disruption-opportunity presentations delivered annually.
- Organizations should improve customer experience by focusing on high-quality design at every front-end interaction point.
- Focus on design standardization across the organization.
- Increase the number of training sessions by 2x per year.
Transform the organization:
- Organizations should represent design at the top level. In other words, involve the CEO and board members in design-related meetings.
- Leaders should spread a standard set of practices across the organization. Organizations can achieve this by hosting 2x education sessions a month or periodically.
Transform the design team:
- Focus on design team skills.
- Arrange regular user-experience conferences to bring forth new skill sets.
- Continuously improve the design team (like 3x campus recruiting visits).
How to Improve User Experience?
7. Test with only five users to discover all the usability problems, as elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources.
(Nielsen Norman Group)
While many small businesses reserve a considerable budget and strict schedules for conducting usability tests, NNGroup user experience stats indicate it only takes 15 users to discover all the usability problems.
However, it is better to conduct usability tests with a small number of users (5, actually, not fifteen). Instead, a UX designer should focus on conducting as many small tests when trying to improve the elements of bad UX websites.
As you can see in the image, testing with five users will reveal as much as 85% of problems on the bad usability websites.
Even if you have the resources to test usability with 15 users, reserve the funding for future tests of the web pages or apps.
Because once you get the results, you must create the new design and test it again. Retain that there is no such thing as frictionless UX design.
So while the 15 representatives can find all the website's problems related to bad user experience, redesigning will only resolve some of the problems on the bad usability websites. You have to invest in user testing again.
And this is where many businesses fail. They fail to improve their websites even after UX testing because they do not test the improved elements after working on the problems found in the first results.
8. Increasing the UX development budget by 10% can result in an 83% conversion lift.
(Nielsen Norman Group)
Increased productivity, ROI, and KPIs are good indicators of whether your UX testing solved the problems of poor website experience or not.
For instance, if your business has invested in a UX development project, and you do not notice any improvements in KPIs and ROI, it means you still have a poor UX design.
NNGroup UX experience stats indicate that there are six stages of the UX development process. The sixth stage is user-driven and what is generally considered as good UX.
So, track your UX maturity level and determine which of these stages your company websites currently occupy. And use the result of the assessments to work on UX-related weaknesses and poor usability problems.
Test again, redesign, and repeat the cycle to continuously counter the pain points of bad UX websites and make them user-friendly.
User Experience Suffers Because of These Common Pitfalls
9. 43% of organizations do not have processes to make UX and design decisions based on user feedback.
(UserZoom)
Positive or negative feedback from users plays a crucial role in the product development life cycle.
Organizations that include user insights into product development and UX decision processes report positive customer experiences and brand perception vs. the organizations that don’t consider feedback by a significant margin.
In fact, 80% of companies considering user insights into UX decisions report positive customer satisfaction rates vs. 50% that don’t.
Plus, 76% of organizations that take user feedback in product development processes report positive brand perception vs. 45% that don’t.
Here’s the impact of UX on business goals and a comparison between organizations that consider user insights vs. ones that don’t:
10. Only 13% of organizations have a UX leader in the C-suite.
(UserZoom)
In more than 70% of organizations, the most senior UX leaders are at the middle management level.
Furthermore, as evident from the following image — no one is accountable for delivering a clear-cut user experience.
In other words, most companies still recognize user experience as a “tactical consideration.” And the perceptions must change if you want to increase conversions, engagements, and revenue.
The biggest problem is that most organizations say user experience is critical for their success. Still, they do not change the organizational processes.
For instance, more than 75% of organizations say user experience positively impacts the customer experience. At least 62% say good UX improves brand perception. But, as indicated earlier, there is a lack of executive leadership in these organizations.
In addition, UserZoom’s UX statistics reveal that 70% of organizations wanted to increase their UX research back in 2021. But, in reality, more than half of the organizations that said so did not increase their budgets for UX research.
Some 86% of C-level executives say they understand the value of UX design. But only 59% say they can measure the success of UX based on indirect metrics.
11. Organizations measure UX success on metrics like customer satisfaction (63%), sales retention (60%), and product or site analytics (50%).
(UserZoom)
While these metrics are linked to user experience, they say little about the success of user experience. For instance, if a business sees improvement in these rates, they will stop working on the development of user experience, given they might think they have crossed the finish line.
However, there is no finish line, and always more to be done when it comes to UX success.
And metrics like customer satisfaction and sales retention do not give you any clear insights on how to improve your user experience further.
So, it is better to use other UX metrics like:
- Task time — measures the efficiency of service on the app or website. Create scenarios, estimate how much time it takes for website visitors to complete the task, and note down the average time to complete the task. Continue to work on tasks that take more time to complete.
- Error occurrence rate — measures the usability of the website. Create a task, measure the performance, note errors, and improve.
- Task satisfaction — can website visitors complete the task successfully? Ask users whether they are satisfied with the process or should be improved.
12. First impressions are 94% design-related. Up to 75% of users trust an aesthetically pleasing website.
(Toptal)
Apart from user experience, businesses must also keep up with the trends and work on the website design because users don’t trust outdated websites.
As much as 94% of mobile users say they do not trust outdated mobile sites or apps.
The latest web design statistics from UKWebHost highlight that it takes less than 0.05 seconds to form a design opinion.
So, invest in excellent mobile-friendly and web-friendly design practices if you instantly want to grab customers’ attention.
Equally important to note, 54% of mobile users leave a site if it doesn’t load in under 3 seconds. As discussed earlier, slow websites will cost you dollars.
You should also pay particular attention to optimized images on the webpages, as they affect loading time and user behavior significantly.
In fact, users expect a mobile site to load in under three seconds. Nearly 36% of mobile users abandon a site if the images pn the site don’t load quickly.
Leading Barriers To Creating a Culture of User-Centricity
13. 55% of organizations say they lack the “time” to create a user-centric culture.
(UserZoom)
Even in 2021, “time,” “budget,” and “resource constraints” were the leading barriers to creating a user-centric culture. As mentioned, at least 70% of organizations did wanted to improve their focus on user experience but did not take action. In reality, the budget for improving user experience was almost unchanged.
Here are the top barriers to creating a user-centric culture as indicated by organizations:
14. 45% of companies do not conduct any kind of UX testing.
(Econsultancy)
Of the 45% of companies — 73% are considering to start UX testing and improving web user experience via trial and error.
When asked about the reason for not conducting any tests on their sites with a bad user interface till now, more than half of the companies said they don’t have enough budget.
Some 46% of companies said they lack the qualified IT staff to conduct user interface testing. Whereas only a small number of companies (4%) said — they are happy with their current web user experience level.
The above UX statistics indicate that most companies are not testing their user interface, even when they know they have a bad UX.
User Experience Statistics: Mobile Users and Mobile Apps
15. 80% of users abandon a site that doesn’t display correctly on their smartphones.
(Visual.ly)
As of the first quarter of 2022, 58.8% of all website traffic came from mobile devices; the proportion must be higher today.
Visual.ly’s mobile user experience statistics further highlight as much as 85% of users expect a mobile site to be as good as the desktop equivalent.
However, given mobile users have surpassed desktop users, businesses must place importance on mobile user experience.
This means businesses can no longer afford to simply optimize their desktop sites and make it mobile responsive if they want to stay ahead of the competition.
Instead, they should focus on mobile apps and follow a mobile-first approach to develop good mobile UX design, especially if most of your customers interact via mobile devices.
16. 48% of customers say poor mobile designs make them feel like the company doesn’t care about their business.
(Think With Google)
Google’s mobile user experience stats indicates that 75% prefer mobile-friendly or mobile-optimized sites, not just mobile-responsive ones.
However, 96% of mobile users report encountering a site that wasn’t designed for their devices. Up to 48% of users say poor mobile UX sites or apps frustrate and annoy them.
Even more, 79% of mobile internet users say they quickly move on to another site if they do not find what they are looking for right away on the mobile site.
At least 50% of users in the Google survey said they stopped interacting (or visit the site less often) if the businesses did not have a user-friendly mobile site, even if they like the brand.
At the same time, a mobile-friendly design can turn users into customers. Google’s UX statistics report users are more likely to revisit a business or buy a product or service if the company offers excellent mobile experiences.
For instance,
- 74% of online shoppers say they will return to a business's mobile site if they had a positive experience on the first interaction with the brand.
- 67% of customers indicate they are more likely to buy from a company with a mobile-friendly site.
17. 9 out of 10 users dump an app because of poor performance.
(AppDynamics, AlphaSoftware)
AppDynamics UX statistics highlight 88% of users say they will abandon an app if it consistently has glitches or technical bugs.
Around 51% say they will abandon an app after encountering even one technical glitch repeatedly. Whereas one-third of the users say, they will leave an app after experiencing a single UX/UI glitch.
From lack of market need to privacy concerns, there are several reasons why an app fails to make the mark in the market. The primary reason for abandoning an app, however, is a bad user experience.
This is also true for most of the applications. For instance, of the 2.7 million apps in the Google Play store, only a few get sustainable traffic.
AlphaSoftware’s UI statistics highlight that most users stick with an app for 3-7 days. And if the app doesn’t impress the users within that period, it is challenging to sustain existing customers or acquite new ones.
The same UX stats from AlphaSoftware highlights 77% of users leave an app within three days, 90% within a month, and 95% within three months.
According to AppDynamics UX statistics, a good UX can drive ongoing retention. Up to 89% of users say they inform a friend or colleague after a positive experience on mobile apps.
AppDynamics also reports lack of funding alone is not the reason for bad user experience on mobile apps.
UX testing, not listening to user feedback, not designing the app with intent, and other reasons like stakeholders not taking an interest in the user experience — are all the reasons for a bad user interface. And they are also the underlying reasons for mobile apps not getting sustainable traffic.
Equally important to note stakeholders should make UX decisions based on research, data, and facts, not their opinions.
E-commerce UX Statistics: How to Design User Experience That Drives Conversion?
18. 50% of eCommerce revenue comes from mobile devices.
(UK Web Host Review)
Businesses must understand that bad UX is more expensive than good UX, given it creates friction.
A bad UX means users abandon pages or cart and also hesitate to revisit your shopping site or application on mobile phones next time.
As already discussed in our ecommerce statistics guide, there are several reasons for cart abandonment. Still, almost all the reasons can be boiled down to poor user experience — friction while checking out.
However, users will not even reach the cart if the previous pages have already annoyed them, This is a result of bad mobile optimization or bad UX of the website.
For instance, UKWebHost’s responsive web design stats indicate that more than half of the users will leave an ecommerce site if it is not optimized for mobile phones.
19. Only 1% of users say the ecommerce site interface meets their expectations.
(KomMarketing)
When it comes to ecommerce sites, UX designers must focus more on navigation, menu, and filters than anything. UX statistics highlight that over 43% of online shoppers immediately go to the search box after visiting an eCommerce store.
And as indicated in our ecommerce website design guide, the design of the product pages and high-quality images are other influential aspects of ecommerce sites.
Not to forget, overall aesthetics is key to attracting online customers and reducing cart abandonment. KomMarketing’s UX stats indicate it takes less than 500ms to 50ms to make a good first impression.
Of course, these design practices may not impress all users. But retain that even if you increase the percentage of happy customers by 5%, it could be a game-changer for your website’s conversion rate and overall revenue.
KomMarketing’s UX experience stats suggests some 37% of online shoppers leave commerce websites simply because of poor design and navigation. Lack of contact information (44%), animated ads (42%), and tiny text (15%) are other elements that annoy buyers and existing customers — causing them to leave.
Today, only 32% of small businesses have a website. While the other 42% plan to build one in the future, some 26% are likely never to release one.
The most significant reason for this is: small businesses do not have the budget to create a website.
At the same time, most small businesses that invest in building a custom website end up with bad user experience websites. Simply because they don’t have an adequate budget to test, rework the pain points of bad UX, and continue the cycle further.
However, according to KomMarketing, a common mistake new ecommerce businesses make (without a high budget) is trying to create a unique user experience with website design.
A good UX designer can do wonders for your ecommerce store. But a bad UX designer can hurt your business too.
That is why it is great to stick to some popular ecommerce solutions in the earlier phase when you have a low budget for design.
Because, at its most basic level, ecommerce site design must be accessible, usable, and inclusive.
And given that a reliable online store builder offers readymade themes optimized for large catalogs, multi-purpose use, and mobile, tablet, & desktop — it is simple to use and is accessible, usable, and inclusive.
Not to forget, you can save a lot of money by using ready-made templates for building small business websites.
Nevertheless, once you have the budget, a custom route is the way to go about it, given a web designer can turn your vision into reality and give more personalized options.
How Can These UX Statistics Help Your Organization Grow?
Clearly, user experience has become a key differentiator. A positive customer experience directly affects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and overall revenue. In contrast, negative user experiences make customers think the brands do not value their business.
That is to say — today, in the digital-first world, it’s not about what your business can do for the users. Instead, it is about how your business makes users feel. And the website and app have become the first point where users interact with your business.
And while businesses are starting to understand the importance of user experience, they are still making UX-related decisions based on opinions and assumptions. Ideas and assumptions of stakeholders are fine, but it’s critical to test your hypotheses with real-world data, research, and analysis.
As well as user testing, user feedback and metrics (like task time, errors, and task satisfaction) should be the main focus of businesses when testing UX. Not an increase in revenue or customer satisfaction.
Above all, as indicated several times in this UX stats guide, designing UX is a challenging task. Plus, there’s no “perfect UX design,” so research, develop, test all the interaction points, and repeat the cycle.