For frustration's sake

Frustration’s a funny foe, because we cause most of it. Familiar too - as nearly 2 in 5 sessions experiences some measure of frustration.

With hopes of optimizing the visit, we inject a few blasts of innovation. Maybe a new app we integrate or a page template we change or myriad other optimizations. To borrow from Newton’s law of motion, we have digital’s law of optimization: every change has a potential reaction. That reaction might be slight – a sip of load time or a new set of scripts to monitor.

When we don’t mind the shop, a change can mutate into frustration.

→ Pages that keep visitors waiting

→ Buttons that don’t respond,

→ And the infamous most frustrating of all, the rage click.

No site is perfect - there’s always something gnarly. But, the common refrain rings true:

what gets measured gets managed.

So, those that are measuring their frustration are far better positioned to reduce it and the downstream impact.