UX Header

Performance UX Breakfast Briefing

According to iProspect’s UX Performance Index, 99% of brands are losing traffic due to slow loading of mobile pages and three in ten (29%) brands have bigger mobile pages than desktop. When it comes to Performance UX, how can brands know whether they are getting it right?

To launch the Index, which examined 401 websites and 307 brands across 14 industries, iProspect hosted our latest Breakfast Briefing on 18 April. The comprehensive research, analysed by our team of data scientists, provides the top digital spenders in the UK with four total scores against key metrics, like PageSpeed, that lead to an optimised user experience.

Tom Amies-Cull, COO of iProspect UK & Ireland, opened the breakfast briefing by talking through how for brands to succeed in today's digital economy, it is imperative that the user journey is frictionless and efficient. One key metric that brands should therefore focus on is site speed. iProspect's research found that almost all brands analysed are losing traffic due to slow loading of mobile pages.

However, site speed is just one piece of the Performance UX puzzle. By integrating Technical SEO and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation), two channels that traditionally work in silos, into the wider strategy, brands will offer an improved experience and ultimately, achieve a better ROI across the website. iProspect’s Ben Donaldson, Group Account Director, and Dan Wigley, Group Director of Data and Optimisation, both talked through the fundamentals of the channels and offered valuable insights on how brands can implement the necessary changes for a better user experience.

Sophie Wooller, iProspect's Director of Data and Technology Products, talked through the methodology behind our UX Performance Index and the key metrics that fed into the wider research. Our experts gathered 10,000 data points to offer brands a robust roadmap of how their website, across both desktop and mobile, fares within their industry and against competitors.

From July, mobile site speed will be included in Google's ranking algorithm, which is why brands need to prioritise Performance UX, particularly brands in the travel sector. iProspect's research found that this sector is leaving nearly £1 billion a year on the table. According to the Index, travel is at the bottom when it comes to offering customers the best overall online user experience.

Table 1 UXTable 2 UX  

An in-depth look at the UX Performance Index highlights the key metrics that directly affect a brand's score, including:

  • PageSpeed Score – how fast the page loaded, scored against global web averages  

  • Performance and Progressive Web Apps  – results yielded from an audit combining Tech SEO parameters  

  • Accessibility – how user-friendly the page is for impaired users, scored against global averages 

The event ended with a panel discussion around how brands can future-proof their business through Performance UX. Specialists from iProspect, including Pedro Mona, Executive Director of Platforms and Engineering, were joined by Nic Cumisky, UK Mobile Leader for Google and Rebecca Sentance, Deputy Editor of Search Engine Watch, who moderated the panel. The 15-minute discussion provided a holistic view on the significant impact that Performance UX can have on a business’s bottom line and the direct revenue opportunities that it can provide.

Sophie touched on how brands can start with simply aligning internal teams with different objectives to reach this shared goal. She said that this could require a structural change but that the effort behind this will significantly improve the customer experience.

Pedro Mona, iProspect’s Executive Director of Platforms and Engineering, echoed insights from Dan and Ben on the need for personalisation and how, like site speed, it affects the customer journey. He explained that although personalisation should be a focus further down the line, it is a key Performance UX element. He continued by saying brands should concentrate on site speed to capture the customer and then by offering an optimised and personalised experience, this is more likely to lead to a conversion.

When it comes to prioritising customer experience, Nic from Google confirmed that getting site speed right is imperative and that there is no point in having a beautiful journey if customers can’t get on site. He followed this comment by stating that although businesses have different priorities, if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load, more than half of customers who land on your site will bounce away. This will continue to have a greater impact on brands and ultimately, their Performance UX scores.

Find out what some of our speakers thought were the key takeaways from the event in this video

For more guidance on Performance UX, download the whitepaper, and if you missed the Breakfast Briefing watch it in full here