A complete guide to competitive analysis UX research, covering key strategies, benchmarking techniques, and a step-by-step template to help businesses build stronger products and outperform the competition.
A discussion on competitive analysis UX strategies brought to you by WANDR, ranked the best in UX strategy and design by Clutch.
Competitive analysis for UX design gives businesses valuable insight into developing more effective product strategies. With UX competitive benchmarking and visual competitive analysis, we gain a better understanding of the market that your product will compete in.
Without a UX competitive analysis, you may struggle to identify the reasons why users would choose your product over your competition.
Competitive analysis UX is one of many research methods used to improve the user experience of websites, apps, and software. If you want to solve usability problems or identify the strengths and weaknesses of your products, start by looking at your competitors.
Follow this complete guide to competitive analysis UX research.
At its core, competitive analysis UX provides an overview of the current state of the market. You get to examine and compare data related to your products and the competition’s products in the marketplace. Businesses typically use visual competitive analysis and other techniques to highlight issues with their products or make better decisions about their product strategies.
A typical analysis includes an overview of the current landscape for the product. This may involve a detailed look at the various products, companies, and prices. The analysis also includes research into user demographics. However, the focus of the analysis is the user experience (UX).
During UX research, many businesses fail to understand the pros and cons of competitive vs comparative analysis. Both options provide valuable insight. However, these research methods rely on different sets of data and provide different outlooks.
Competitive analysis UX methods have a broader reach. For example, using a typical competitive analysis template, you may examine both direct and indirect competition.
The comparative analysis focuses on the most comparable products. Your research should include companies that offer services that closely match your own offerings. With comparative analysis, you also determine how your product stands out when directly compared to similar options. This reveals usability issues or flaws in your UX design.
Competitive analysis UX looks at the overall state of the market, helping to determine marketing strategies and product placement.
To complete a thorough review of your competition, follow our standard competitive analysis template. The key steps used for competitive analysis UXresearch include:
Along with a competitive analysis template, consider using visual competitive analysis techniques. Visualizing the differences between the competition makes it easier to digest the findings of your analysis. You gain an overview of the key pros and cons of your products compared to the competition.
The first step in our competitive analysis template requires that you define your goals. Your product is a reflection of your customer goals and your business goals.
What do you want to get out of your competitive analysis?
A detailed competitive analysis template helps determine the size of the market and the demand for similar products. These details assist with product launch strategies and budgets. For example, if the market is limited, you may want to avoid launching a massive marketing campaign.
A visual competitive analysis helps compare the qualities of your product against the specific features of the competitor’s products. This is a form of comparative analysis and is used for several purposes, including identifying potential customers and finding ways to improve your product.
By uncovering strengths and weaknesses, you also find ways to promote your product. The sales and marketing departments can focus more on the advantages of your offerings compared to the competition.
Without UX competitive benchmarking, your competitive analysis UX research lacks clearly defined data. You simply end up with an overview of the market without any real insight for comparing your company against multiple competitors.
UX competitive benchmarking helps you track the performance of your product in relation to the competition. Unfortunately, you cannot easily track certain metrics related to your competition, such as sales data. However, you can compare social media followers, website visits, and the total number of users.
Along with setting competitive benchmarks, you can set internal benchmarks. Continue to monitor and analyze pre-existing key performance indicators (KPI), such as cost per customer acquisition.
As part of your visual competitive analysis, create a list of direct and indirect competition. Direct competitors include companies that offer similar products and prices. Indirect competitors offer products at a lower value or higher value compared to your own offerings.
While you may already have knowledge of a few competitors in your market, search for additional competitors using search engines and social media channels. You may find newer companies and startups offering similar products that you have not yet heard of.
After compiling a list of competitors, map them out using a mind map. Categorize the competitors based on their priority. Direct competitors are the highest priority while indirect competitors are the lowest priority.
The next part of your visual competitive analysis requires a list of features and data points to compare. When setting benchmarks, remember to select data points that are easy to track.
Along with looking for strengths and weaknesses in your products, look for opportunities and potential threats to the success of your release.
For a competitive analysis, list the main features of the user experience that you want to compare. This may include the user interface, search features, menus, and other UX elements.
If you are using UX competitive benchmarking, track the metrics that you listed to start identifying differences between your product and the competition’s products.
Along with UX competitive benchmarking, you can compare product features. Use the list created in the previous step to directly compare the primary functions, usability, and interface. Create a visual competitive analysis that outlines the differences.
When comparing differences, you will also uncover commonalities between the products. These common features highlight room for improvement. Surpassing the other products in these areas can offer a competitive advantage.
The last step in the competitive analysis template is to summarize your findings. Use your research to improve your marketing approach or develop a better product.
Creating a visual competitive analysis chart can help with the summary process. Visualizing the data in a mind map allows others to quickly grasp the main findings of your research.
Competitive analysis UX research helps you uncover useful details about the current landscape of the market. You can learn more about the products offered by your competition, allowing you to identify the advantages and disadvantages of your products.
The insight that you receive through competitive analysis UX research helps you develop better products and more effective UX designs. Remember to follow the competitive analysis template. Define your goals, add UX competitive benchmarking, and start comparing products.
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Competitive analysis in UX design is a research method that examines and compares the user experience of your product against both direct and indirect competitors. It helps businesses identify market gaps, uncover usability issues, and develop stronger product and design strategies.
Competitive analysis looks at the broader market landscape, including both direct and indirect competitors, to inform product positioning and marketing strategy. Comparative analysis focuses specifically on products most similar to your own, highlighting usability differences and design strengths or weaknesses when placed side by side.
A thorough UX competitive analysis involves six steps: defining your goals and product, establishing UX competitive benchmarks, compiling a list of direct and indirect competitors, creating a list of features and data points to compare, identifying differences between products, and summarizing findings to guide your strategy.
A visual competitive analysis presents your research findings in a format such as a mind map or comparison chart, making it easier for teams and stakeholders to quickly understand the key differences, commonalities, and opportunities across competing products without getting lost in raw data.
By revealing what competitors do well and where they fall short, competitive analysis helps product teams make informed design decisions, prioritize the right features, and identify areas where their product can offer a meaningful advantage. This leads to more user-centered products with stronger market fit.
