Facepalm Frequency, Keyboard Smash Index, and Head Scratcher Score

Understanding users
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After being inspired by this post and hearing Add-to-cart Rate, I wanted to put a fun list of metrics together. (Had AI help me a little bit).

I picked my favorite 10:

  1. Facepalm Frequency: How often users facepalm while using the app.
  2. Keyboard Smash Index: Instances of users hitting the keyboard in rage.
  3. Head Scratcher Score: Frequency of users scratching their heads in puzzlement.
  4. “I Give Up” Button Clicks: How many times users hit a hypothetical “I Give Up” button.
  5. Back Button Rage Clicks: Aggressive pressing of the back button.
  6. Eye-Roll Ratio: Instances of users rolling their eyes while engaging with the interface.
  7. Distraction Detours: Number of times users get distracted by something shinier.
  8. Chair Spin Rate: Number of times users spin in their chair, waiting for a load.
  9. Unexpected Cat Appearances: Times users’ cats jump onto the keyboard during use.
  10. Refresh Ritual Frequency: Users compulsively refreshing the page.

Here’s a funny list of units of measurement from wikipedia: List of humorous units of measurement - Wikipedia

And Company KPIs: A little KPI humor to brighten your day :rofl: (thought these ones were top-notch)

Thought some of these were knee slappers. Anyone have any other favorites?

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I like 7. Distraction detours .. both because it shows when we’re not getting out of the way to let the customers do what they want .. and because of the opposite: when we assume a distraction is unwanted while it might make the experience much better (e.g. if I’m online window shopping and serendipity is important to improve the experience)

As Rory Sutherlands suggests we’ve created this idea that highly rational metrics create good measures of what a good experience is.

e.g. if you want to book a train then there is this assumption that you want to choose based on time and price .. but those are only two options both focused on reducing the experience to as little as possible… Sutherland suggests that these are hardly the only reasons why people ride trains and that we would benefit from better measures more closely connected to why people prefer the train compared to planes or cars. https://youtu.be/Bc9jFbxrkMk?si=zd6XhuTlGb6A0ruW

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These are sooo good @ben ! #5 is a 10/10.

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Haha, thanks Nathalie!

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I just realized I’d probably have a high Back Button Rage Click score :joy:

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Love the thinking Helge! I do believe that actually makes a lot of sense, and that it’s something builders are typically going to miss and not consider.

Too many tricky loops that aren’t always intuitive.

The question might be- how do we keep these pitfalls on top of mind?

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Using the example of an online website where people would list their houses, but also where other people would go every day to look at houses and sometime, only rarely purchase a house (we have one of them here in Norway). If the measure of success would be only the sale of the house the experience would fail the people who are just there to ‘window shop’ (which I assume are >90% of the visits). The site would need to be able to 1. identify (assume) why people are visiting by analyzing online behavior and 2. Measure the value of the experience based on this assumption.

That is why (I keep nagging about) the need to focus on ‘situations’. Because it’s situations that determine (hold the information about) what people are trying to achieve and value. Neither a focus on people (demographics), nor customers (only one situation) nor users (only use ) help us understand the bigger picture, motivation and desired outcome.

Maybe this is packaged inside something else today (it’s been a while since I worked as a UX’er), but my experience at Merck was that situations held the key to better understand and design experiences :slight_smile:

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Don’t worry, it’s getting through to me. Slowly but surely (kidding on the slowly part).

Definitely need to keep leaning in!

Your insight is awesome as always @Helge. Super appreciate your guidance here!

Situations, situations, situations…

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  • Chair Spin Rate: Number of times users spin in their chair, waiting for a load.

This is measured by the idle time after load. Significantly contributes to social media traffic. :grimacing:

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Good feedback @ben

I’m trying to make this into a bigger thing myself as well (also because the data is less intrusive compared to “personal” data which I struggle with seeing being very effective).

Let me try to spin out a post on the form to talk about ‘situations’ more focused :slight_smile:

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