I’ve been in enough meetings to know how this goes.
Someone tosses out a new onboarding idea. Someone else says the dashboard feels confusing. You pull together a quick redesign based on everyone’s ideas, ship it, and then everyone goes quiet post-launch. Or worse, someone cites a 12% bounce rate drop like it’s proof, but nobody knows what actually changed.
Most teams have no problem coming up with ideas.
The real challenge is knowing whether those ideas work for users. You launch a feature, improve an onboarding flow, or redesign a dashboard, and then what? Do users understand it? Can they use it easily? Does it drive results?
These are hard questions. But there’s a better way to answer them.
That’s why we built Glare. It’s a UX metrics framework for people who are done guessing. Glare isn’t about tracking everything. It’s about caring about what matters. It helps you stop guessing and start measuring what really counts, one decision at a time.
What Even Is a UX Metric?
Let’s start at the foundation: the UX metric. First off, it’s not just an analyst thing.
A UX metric quantifies how people experience your product. Instead of relying on gut feelings or stakeholder opinions, you can use metrics to track what’s working, what’s confusing, and where people are getting stuck.
A UX metric is a way to create a signal. A sharp, directional read on how someone experiences your product. Not their opinion. Not your hunch. Actual behavior and reaction.
Metrics like:
- Comprehension, Do they get it?
- Task success, Can they do the thing?
- Time on task, Are they breezing through or dragging?
- Satisfaction, Did the experience leave a mark?
These aren’t vanity numbers. They’re breadcrumbs that show you where people stall, struggle, or succeed. They’re how your team shifts from “Let’s try this” to “Here’s what happened and why.”
But metrics on their own are just noise. You need a structure that shapes them into something useful.
That’s what Glare is for.
Glare: A Framework That Works the Way You Do
We didn’t invent Glare in a vacuum. It comes from over 50,000 hours of real testing, product cycles, and decisions that carried weight.
Glare works like a diamond with four strong, connected facets:
- Define: Get clear on the user and what matters
- Measure: Run small smart tests before you ship
- Compare: Track what’s improving and why
- Lead: Connect the dots to business results
You don’t need to follow them in order. Start wherever the pain is or you can create momentum.
We’ve found there are four things you need to get right in data-informed design to run smoothly across a company. It may take some time, but the payoff is worth every penny.
First, you have to define how you’re going to measure the experience. Without that alignment, your numbers will feel random. You’ll have graphs, charts, heatmaps… but no traction. Calibration is everything. It builds confidence that your metrics mean something and that your team is paying attention to the right signals.
Next, you need a consistent way to measure, whether you’re working on a dashboard or building a landing page. This doesn’t mean rigid process. It means repeatable clarity. When the team knows how testing works and what a metric means, they start learning faster. They carry insight from one project to the next. You build momentum, not confusion. Creative work is already highly variable. Don’t make measurement a wildcard too.
Then comes comparison because one metric in isolation tells you almost nothing. Measurement becomes useful when you’re looking at options side by side. Did this change reduce friction? Did that version create more confidence? Comparing forces decisions. It turns observation into action.
And finally, you need to connect your results to business outcomes. Otherwise, you’re just presenting numbers in isolation. Executives won’t care. Stakeholders won’t trust the data. If the work doesn’t ladder up to something the business already values, like conversion, retention, efficiency, then it fades into the background.
Glare is designed to solve all of that. Each facet supports a habit. A way of thinking. A decision pattern you can repeat.
Let’s walk through each one.
1. Define: Anchor in Reality
You’ve had the moment, mid-review, when someone looks at the screen and asks, “What are we even solving here?”
That’s your signal to switch into Define mode.
This facet grounds your work in the real needs of users. No vague goals. No “make it cleaner.” Just focused questions like:
- Who are we designing for?
- What’s frustrating them?
- What would success look like?
Then pick a couple of metrics that show if you’re solving the right problem. That’s it. No dashboards. No 14-tab spreadsheets. Just useful signals that bring the team back to center.
Define builds credibility. And credibility buys speed.
The Define facet of Glare helps you uncover those needs and figure out which UX metrics will matter most. It’s where you get clear on who you’re designing for and what success should look like, both for your users and your business.
2. Measure: Ask the Question Before You Commit
Design often moves fast. But that doesn’t mean you should launch blindly.
Here’s a story I’ve seen play out: The team is excited. They’ve designed a personalization feature. Engineering is lined up. You pause and ask, “Do users know what this is?”
You run a quick comprehension test. Turns out, most users think it’s a toggle. It’s not. It’s a customization tool. You just saved weeks of confusion and cleanup.
This is the power of Measure. Ask the right question. Run the small test. Catch the blind spot early.
In the Measure facet of Glare, you turn your ideas into structured experiments. You ask clear questions, run small tests, and use UX metrics to validate your assumptions before investing more time.
This is where Glare shines.
Let’s say your team wants to add a new onboarding step. You could:
- Use a comprehension test to see if users understand it
- Measure first-click success to see if they know what to do
- Collect satisfaction scores to find out if it feels helpful or annoying
You don’t need perfect data. You just need enough to act with confidence.
Measure also encourages you to trust your hunches, those early signals from product intuition, past behavior, or internal feedback. Glare helps you sharpen those hunches into measurable questions, so your team can move from “we think” to “we know.”
3. Compare: Stay Oriented in the Fog
You launch the redesign. Bounce goes down. Activation goes down. And someone says, “But why?”
It’s one thing to measure a design. It’s another to know if it’s actually improving. This is where Compare helps you sort through the changes. You don’t just track numbers. You add context:
- Are users finding what they came for?
- Are they completing tasks faster?
- Are they lingering because it’s good or because they’re lost?
Define Design KPIs that show what success means:
- More activations after onboarding
- Fewer errors during checkout
- Higher trust ratings on pricing pages
Compare isn’t about declaring a win. It’s about explaining it. This is especially helpful when things get murky. That’s how your work starts driving decisions instead of just decorating them.
The Compare facet is where you benchmark results, test variations, and see how your experience performs against past results or your competitors.
4. Lead: Make Your Work Count
Most frameworks stop at insight. Glare goes further.
Lead is about connecting your work to the stuff executives care about. Retention. Conversion. Support load. Revenue.
You redesign onboarding. Now what?
- Task success is up 20 percent
- Activation climbs 15 percent
- Setup-related support tickets drop 30 percent
Now you’re not pitching design as intuition. You’re showing it as a growth driver.
Leadership doesn’t want to hear you think it’s better. They want proof. Glare gives you that connection point.
Now you can link design metrics to real business outcomes. That’s how you turn design into a strategic asset, not just a tactical service.
Why Glare Works When Other Stuff Doesn’t
You might have tried other measurement techniques like NPS or CSAT. They looked great on slides. Maybe they provide some short-term benefits, but they weren’t focused on aligning a team around a design problem.
Here’s why Glare sticks.
It’s open and flexible
You don’t need to do everything. Pick a metric. Run a test. Keep going.
Glare isn’t a one-size-fits-all template. It’s a framework. You can use it across websites, apps, internal tools, or services. It works for tiny tests and massive redesigns. You start where you are and grow over time.
It’s rooted in real practice
This isn’t theoretical. It’s based on actual cycles and real teams who ship.
Glare was built by ZURB after more than 50,000 hours of testing and analysis of millions of Helio user responses. It’s battle-tested, practical, and built for teams who want results.
It translates to business
You can explain how a UX decision reduced churn, improved signup, or cut support costs.
Glare makes it easier to explain why design work matters. It helps you translate metrics into business language, so stakeholders see how your work impacts growth, conversion, and retention.
It focuses on progress, not perfection
Glare isn’t waiting for your data warehouse to be ready. It’s designed for the scrappy, real-world conditions most teams live in.
You don’t need perfect data. You don’t need fancy dashboards. You just need one metric that reflects a real user need. Glare encourages you to start small, test often, and build momentum.
Getting Started Without Waiting for Approval
You don’t need a full research team. You don’t need a budget meeting. You don’t need permission.
What you need is a loop. One small pass through Glare to build confidence and show what this approach can do.
Here’s how to start today:
1. Pick a metric
Choose something simple and grounded in the experience like task success, comprehension, satisfaction. Don’t overthink it. This is your Define moment. You’re anchoring your work to something measurable and meaningful. It tells everyone, “This is what we’re trying to move.”
2. Choose a moment
Zoom in. Don’t try to solve everything. Focus on a key interaction: signup, onboarding, dashboard use, checkout flow. A single screen or sequence where you suspect there’s friction or drop-off. You’re framing the initiative. Scoping the space where you’ll learn. That clarity sets the stage for smarter tests.
3. Ask a real question
Skip the vague “Did you like it?” and go straight for “Do users understand what to do here?” or “Where are they getting stuck?” These questions come from hunches. From patterns. From gut checks that need validation.
This is your Measure entry point. A good question unlocks the signal.
4. Run a quick test
You don’t need weeks. You don’t need perfection. Use a short survey, a first-click test, or a quick usability session. Just get signal. We use Helio because it makes testing fast and scalable—but any method that gives you user feedback works. The goal here is to reduce guesswork, not to generate a report.
5. Compare your findings
Look at what changed. What got easier? What improved?
This is the Compare piece. You’re building your first mini benchmark. Maybe it’s two versions of the same flow. Maybe it’s before and after a change. Either way, this is where things shift from “we think” to “we know.”
6. Tell the story
Don’t just show a chart. Connect it back to the original problem. Did the test support your hunch? Did it surface a new opportunity? What’s the next move?
This is where you step into the Lead mindset. You’re not just reporting data. You’re making meaning from it. You’re helping your team learn faster and trust the path forward.
When you put it all together, you’ve just completed your first Glare loop.
One focused moment. One metric. One small test. That’s all it takes to start building a habit of design that proves its value, and earns its place in the room.
Here’s the wider view of all the components in the framework to help you make better decisions:
Who Glare Is For
Glare works for any team that cares about users, and wants to prove the value of their work with a data-informed approach.
- Designers, Back up your work with signals that matter
- PMs, Make roadmap calls with confidence
- Marketers, Tie page tweaks to conversion lifts
- Researchers, Turn insight into structure and action
- Executives, See how UX efforts move real business levers
Everyone has a role. Everyone benefits.
A Final Thought: Design That Counts
We built Glare to answer a simple question: How do we know this design actually works?
But the truth is, Glare goes further than that.
It gives you a way to:
- Align teams around real user needs
- Make faster, more confident decisions
- Cut through noise and focus on what matters
- And finally show the value of great design
Design doesn’t have to be fuzzy. With the right metrics, the right structure, and the right mindset, it becomes measurable. Credible. Strategic.
That’s what Glare helps you build.
Ready to Shape What Comes Next?
If Glare resonates, and if you’ve been craving a way to make design sharper, smarter, and more credible, you’re not alone. This isn’t just a framework. It’s a growing community of practitioners figuring it out together.
Whether you want to learn from others, test new ideas, or help shape what Glare becomes, we’d love to have you join us.
Here’s what you’ll get as part of the community:
- Weekly Update: Insights from Design Under Pressure with ideas, lessons, and field-tested stories
- Glare Insights: First look at new UX metrics and thinking behind the framework
- Forum Access: Honest conversations about design decisions, measurement, and momentum
- Contribute Back: Suggest edits, share examples, and improve Glare for everyone
This isn’t for spectators. It’s for people who want to make design a more rigorous, respected part of the way teams work.
Ready to dive in?
Apply to hop on the waiting list to join the Glare community to explore data-informed design, swap ideas, and shape better decisions.
