Competitive
Analysis
Time
⏲
1-2 Days
Difficulty
đź•ą
Easy
Materials
📦
Matrix software or paper
People
đź•´
1 Reseracher
Overview
Competitive analysis is a critical part of the research process. Whether it’s a babysitting app, fintech dashboard, or e-commerce site, understanding the landscape of solutions is crucial to the foundation of the solution you are designing. A competitive analysis provides strategic insights into the features, functions, flows, and feelings evoked by the design solutions of your competitors.
What
Gain understanding your competitors’ products so you can strategically design a superior product.
Why
Get fast, free, easy insight into design problems, and how (and how NOT) to solve them.
When
- Prior to beginning a new project
- Throughout the project and beyond. Your competitive analysis should be an iterative, living document with someone assigned to update it as the market changes to include new competitors.
Steps
Step 1 Prepare
- Create a short list of main comparison criteria before you start. You can always add more criteria if it makes sense. This will keep your research guided.
- Remember to add the product you’re designing to the analysis to see how your product compares to the competition.
- Know when to stop. Start with 3-5 main competitors. Once you uncover the information you need in order to inform your design decisions, it’s time to stop.
- Don’t simply copy the designs you find in your research. The competitors may not be using best practices. Instead, be inspired by the solutions found in your research and adapt the solutions to fit your brand, product, and users.
- Be tool agnostic. Choose the tool that helps you present your findings based on the information you are documenting and sharing.
- Know when to perform a “comparative analysis.” Study solutions from products that are not direct competitors. For example, if you are designing a solution that includes a calendar scheduling feature, explore the best calendar scheduling solutions, regardless of the vertical.
Step 2 Write questions to begin a UX competitive analysis
- Who is currently trying to solve this problem?
- How are they trying to solve the problem?
- What is their strategy for differentiation?
- Did anyone try to solve it in the past and fail?
- Why did they fail?
Step 3 heuristic evaluation
Once the main competitors have been identified, conduct a heuristic evaluation of the competitor’s end-to-end user experience. When possible, keep in mind your product’s goals, how you want users to feel about using your product, and why they would prefer using your product over the competitors.
Note: The criteria you use to compare may vary depending on the project, stakeholder goals, and ultimately what information you need in order to strategically inform your design solutions.
Step 4 Document and share your competitive analysis research
There is no “right” way to do it. Most any method and medium can work, as long as you can clearly see the comparison data points, share with your team and stakeholders, and make data-driven decisions for your design solution.
Step 5 Analyze and share
- Synthesize the data
- Create a summary of findings
- Tag like-items to find patterns (i.e. “distracting” or “hard” were common terms used)
- Share insights with stakeholders
Tools
None