In Sarah Parmenter's talk at An Event Apart in Boston MA 2014, she emphasized the importance of using data as research evidence to design.
Instincts are experiments. Data is proof.
- “Many designers who are skilled technicians, craftsmen, or researchers have struggled to survive in the messy environment required to solve today’s complex problems. They may play a valuable role, but they are destined to live in the downstream world of design execution.”
- It makes stakeholders believe when we present our design with data or research
- Back up decision. Instead of just doing what you do and not asking enough of why, understand as much as you can. I don’t know any of the terminology, but I would dig a little deeper than others.
- Example: Airbnb did a research on images and result shows that professional images have 2-3 times more click than non-professional image. We need to stop decorating, stop designing, start strategy.
- If a strategy can’t predict outcomes, our strategy is broken
- When establish persona, we use Facebook, it is the cheapest why that we can run ads and see who is engaging
- Watch out for small hints, small things really allow us to stand out
- Look for patterns (holiday, monday, birthday), it impacts users behavior
- Order of the importance of the content matters. When you resize, it stays in order
- Communicate your findings that your users can relate.