usability - What UX metrics can I get from a web application?

I think of Google Analytics as a tool that I can incorporate in my web application to get more information about my UI and UX in general. This is in addition to user testing and other tools, but I'm wondering how else, in terms of mechanisms similar to Google Analytics, I can support UX at the framework level.

My latest ground-up application incorporates a testing mode, where (when activated) users can give feedback on specific interface elements quickly and easily. The architecture was designed to support A/B splitting to complement the concept of quick interface feedback.

Besides these methods, is there any other base level UX integration I can do to make better future design decisions?

Answer

Making Sense of Usability Metrics: Usability and Six Sigma (PDF) outlines the following quantitative metrics that could easily be applied to web applications:

1. Completion rate


2. Error rate



3. User satisfaction (self-reported)


4. Completion time

All aside from #3 - User satisfaction can easily be tracked on forms using Google Analytics Event Tracking. You will have to manually specify events such as "Success", "Error", etc.

Once, you have data, you can calculate the metrics as follows:

1. Completion rate = # of success events on a form / # of pageviews on the form


2. Error rate = # of error events on a form / # of pageviews on the form


3. User satisfaction [would have to use a separate survey tool]


4. Completion time = "Time on page" in Google Analytics