Competition Analysis
Tasks set
Before the conception, or rather while analysing your status quo, your product will be compared with the offers of important competitors based on the criteria usability, utility, design, brand relations, and joy of use.
The goal of the competition analysis is to:
- define the position of your product in comparison with competition,
- extract best practice examples from the products of competitors, and
- create competitive advantages by gathering ideas in the test phase.
Method
- Expert Review: usability experts establish the value of your offer as well as that of your competitors' offers on the basis of common usability criteria (see fact sheet "expert review").
- User Experience Test: respondents deal with identical tasks on all offers that shall be tested; they are observed while solving the problems. All difficulties are reflected upon in a qualitative post-exploration (see "Evaluation of Prototypes"). Subsequently, the offers are compared directly. It is appropriate to confront the participants with standardised statements which they have to evaluate by means of a scale. Statements about relevant user experience dimensions thus grant the direct comparability of all offers.
Both methods can be employed either separately or in conjunction.
Process phase
- Live-System: to investigate the status quo of existing offers in comparison with competition.
Sample
- Expert Review: usually without respondents. Several experts examine the test objects based on determined usability categories.
- User Experience Test: the sample size varies depending on the number of offers under examination. Every offer ought to be examined by at least 8 to 10 participants. Each of them should be confronted with 2 to 3 offers. Provided that more offers are included in the study, it is recommendable to let the presentations rotate; the total number of participants will increase accordingly.
Timing
- Expert Review: depending on the number and complexity of the test objects, results will be available after 7 to 10 work days.
- User Experience Test: varies according to the sample size: 4 weeks with 10 to 15 respondents or rather 5 to 6 weeks when involving 20 participants.
Downlaod fact sheet Competition Analysis
