HEART Framework

HEART Framework is a UX metrics framework developed by Google that evaluates user experience across five key dimensions: Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success. It helps product teams define measurable goals, understand user behavior, and guide data-driven design decisions.

Expanded Definition

The HEART Framework, introduced by Google UX researcher Kerry Rodden, is a structured approach to measuring and improving user experience at scale. It’s particularly useful for aligning teams on what to measure and why. Each of the five HEART categories addresses a different facet of the user-product relationship:

• Happiness: Measures user attitudes, often through satisfaction surveys or Net Promoter Scores.
• Engagement: Quantifies the depth and frequency of user interaction.
• Adoption: Tracks the rate at which new users start using a product or feature.
• Retention: Measures how many users return over time, indicating long-term value.
• Task Success: Evaluates usability through metrics like task completion rates, time on task, and error rates.

HEART is often paired with the Goals-Signals-Metrics framework to define what success looks like for each UX goal.

Key Activities

• Define specific goals for each HEART dimension relevant to your product.
• Identify behavioral or attitudinal signals that represent progress toward those goals.
• Choose quantifiable metrics to track over time (e.g., retention rate, satisfaction score).
• Conduct UX research, usability tests, and product analytics to inform the HEART model.
• Use HEART metrics during design sprints and product reviews for alignment.

Benefits

• Offers a user-centered, holistic view of UX performance.
• Facilitates measurable, data-driven decisions across teams.
• Helps prioritize UX work that aligns with both user satisfaction and business value.
• Simplifies communication of UX impact to stakeholders.
• Enables longitudinal tracking of product improvements over time.

Example

A mobile finance app wants to improve user engagement and retention:

• Goal (Engagement): Increase the number of users interacting with budgeting features weekly.
• Signal: Frequent logins and task completions within the budgeting tool.
• Metric: Percentage of active users using budgeting features at least three times a week.

By benchmarking before and after UI improvements, the team finds a 25% increase in engagement and higher reported happiness.

Use Cases

• Measuring user satisfaction after launching a new feature.
• Prioritizing design decisions based on user behavior.
• Aligning UX goals with business KPIs for a redesign.
• Tracking improvements post-usability testing.
• Evaluating long-term product success in Agile environments.

Challenges & Limitations

• Not all five dimensions are relevant for every product or feature.
• Requires cross-functional collaboration and clear data ownership.
• Can be difficult to tie subjective measures (like happiness) directly to business value.
• Overemphasis on metrics can distract from qualitative user insight if not balanced.

Tools & Methods

• Surveys (e.g., CSAT, NPS) – for Happiness
• Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude – for Engagement & Retention
• In-app telemetry – for Adoption & Task Success
• A/B Testing platforms – to validate design impact
• Usability testing & session recordings (e.g., Hotjar, UserTesting) – to support HEART metrics with context

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