Competitive Analysis

Two Reasons for Conducting a Competitive Analysis

There are two primary reasons for conducting a competitive analysis of products: learning from competitors’ successes and mistakes or evaluating user interfaces for organizational purchasing decisions.

Learn from Competitors’ Successes and Mistakes

A competitive analysis of one or more user interfaces is performed in order to understand what competitors’ products do well and poorly. This is a valuable shortcut in the design process because it allows an organization to learn from competitors’ successes and mistakes.

This analysis involves performing several human factors methods, such as expert reviews and usability testing, on the competitor products' user interfaces. The results of these analyses are then compiled into useful interface design guidelines.

Organizational Purchasing Decisions

A competitive analysis of two or more user interfaces is performed in order to understand which system is more usable and useful for supporting users’ jobs and tasks. In most cases, there are multiple products that can be used for completing the same general tasks. Although the products may have similar functionality, their user interfaces probably differ. If this the case, then the purchasing decision will rely heavily on which user interface is the most usable, efficient, satisfying, and comfortable for users.

Purchasing decisions based on user interfaces is complicated by the fact that the most attractive user interface can be misconstrued as the most usable user interface. Therefore, an objective comparison of the user interfaces is necessary in order to determine which user interface best satisfies an organization’s goals.

Based on the specific needs for the organization and its users, multiple human factors methods are used in order to evaluate two or more systems on key aspects such as

• Performance.
• Usability.
• User satisfaction.
• Comfort.
• Safety.
• Training time and/or learning time.

Upon completion of the analysis, a weighted list of the advantages and disadvantages of each system's user interface is generated in order to help clients decide which system will better serve their needs.