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As part of my studies, I need to conduct a case study of an iOS app in a 4-day sprint, and I'm currently working on the benchmarking stage. I'm new to this and trying to gather as much information as possible, but the time constraint and all the steps to take mean I can't really dig deep into my research.

I analyzed the competition using data and also thanks to an interview with the CEO of the app I'm studying, which allowed me to select the competitor to benchmark.

Now, I'm planning to spend a solid afternoon on this benchmark. I'm not able to perform a heuristic analysis (cognitive walkthrough) without the help of a tool, and I'd like to analyze the user journey, features and services, visual design, conversion funnel, and possibly engagement, if possible.

Is there a simple method to suggest, so I can quickly move forward, it would be greatly appreciated.

The goal of this case study is to show that I understand all the steps of the discovery phase.

I could also conduct an observation by justifying the reason for this benchmarking method, like guerrilla-style, but mention that there are other more professional tools available, etc.

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    I do not know how deep and thorough your analysis needs to be, but I doubt you can do it in one solid (or liquid :D ) afternoon. You might be able to do it if you only consider UI, but that will be pretty superficial. However, if this is enough for your assignment, then the tools suggested by @izquierdo are a great starting point.
    – Devin
    Commented Apr 11, 2023 at 16:07

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For your assignment, I would focus less on finding the right tool to benchmark, and more on the metrics that you'll want to capture and improve.

Nielsen Norman has a good 7-step process for your initial (summative) evaluation. It's great that you can talk to the CEO of the app and understand what is most important to them. Is it sign-ups? Conversions? Engagement time? You should be able to tap into that data. If you can't benchmark against past performance, you can see what's available in the competitor's product.

(BTW, you can absolutely perform a heuristic evaluation of the app without a tool - you'd just need to capture the issues that you find with screenshots, and that can be in something as simple as a slide deck or Google Doc. It's a really good start for any product evaluation, though optional for benchmarking.)

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    I read the article, but I still need to find examples to really get a feel for the process. I also stumbled upon this evaluation method 👉🏼 userfocus.co.uk/resources/guidelines.html – do you know it? I'm wondering if it could work instead of heuristic evaluation. It looks simpler to me, but is it ok for competitive benchmarking?
    – Ismael669
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 11:53
  • It might be. It looks like it's geared toward web and ecommerce, but you could probably adapt it to other types of projects. It's comprehensive and gives more structure if you aren't super-experienced with the 10 main heuristics.
    – Izquierdo
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 15:59

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