In this cutthroat world of data-driven design, we\u2019re starting to lose sight of something we once cherished: the designer\u2019s instinct. \u201cTrusting your gut\u201d now means \u201clazy, entitled designer.\u201d When we can ask users what they want directly, there\u2019s no room for instinct and guesswork.<\/p>\n
Or is there?<\/p>\n
Overreliance on data to drive design decisions can be just as harmful as ignoring it. Data only tells one kind of story. But your project goals are often more complex than that. Goals can\u2019t always be objectively measured.<\/p>\n
If the false god of data overshadows other methods of design decision making, we risk optimizing for easily measurable goals at the expense of totally flunking the more subjective experience.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d rather satisfy all the goals. Even if means sometimes ignoring the data.<\/p>\n
![\"Data](\"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/1s-GU5rDECMwQIPOvLMF4Ew.jpeg\" "\\"Data")
<\/p>\n
What is data-driven design?<\/h2>\n
Simply put, data-driven design means making design decisions based on data you collect about how users interact with your product.<\/p>\n
Data-driven design<\/a> is about using information gleaned from both quantitative and qualitative sources to inform how you make decisions for a set of users.<\/span><\/p>\n Some common tools used to collect data include user surveys, A\/B testing, site usage and analytics, consumer research, support logs, and discovery calls. By crafting your products in a way that cater to your users\u2019 goals, preferences, and behaviours, it makes your products far more engaging \u2014 and successful. Back in the days of Mad Men<\/em>, a designer\u2019s gut instinct was glorified because it was difficult to measure the success of a design in progress. You often had to wait until it shipped to know if your idea was any good. Designers justified their value through their innate talent<\/a> for creative ideas and artistic execution. Those whose instincts reliably produced success became rock stars.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s data-driven world, that instinct is less necessary and holds less power. But make no mistake, there\u2019s still a place for it.<\/p>\n Design instinct is a lot more than innate creative ability and cultural guesswork. It\u2019s your wealth of experience. It\u2019s familiarity with industry standards and best practices. You develop that instinct from trial and error \u2014 learning from mistakes.<\/p>\n Instinct is recognizing pitfalls before they manifest into problems, recognizing winning solutions<\/a> without having to explore and test endless options. It\u2019s seeing balance, observing inconsistencies, and honing your design eye. It\u2019s having good aesthetic taste, but knowing how to adapt your style on a whim.<\/p>\n Design instinct is the sum of all the tools you need to make great design decisions in the absence of meaningful data.<\/p>\n Not everything that can be counted, counts. Not everything that counts can be counted.<\/p>\n Data is good at measuring things that are easy to measure. Some goals are less tangible, but that doesn\u2019t make them less important.<\/p>\n While you\u2019re chasing a 2% increase in conversion rate you may be suffering a 10% decrease in brand trustworthiness. You\u2019ve optimized for something that\u2019s objectively measured, at the cost of goals that aren\u2019t so easily codified.<\/p>\n This point is perfectly illustrated by a story by Braden Kowitz, a design partner at Google Ventures (via Wired<\/a>):<\/p>\n One of my first projects at Google was to design the \u201cGoogle Checkout\u201d button. With each wave of design feedback, I was asked to make the button bolder, larger, more eye-catching, and even \u201cclicky\u201d (whatever that means). The proposed design slowly became more garish and eventually, downright ugly.<\/span><\/p>\n To make a point, a colleague of mine stepped in with an unexpected move: He designed the most attention-grabbing button he could possibly muster: flames shooting out the side, a massive chiseled 3-D bevel, an all-caps label (\u201cFREE iPOD\u201d) with a minuscule \u201cCheckout for a chance to win\u201d.<\/p>\n This move reset the entire conversation. It became clear to the team in that moment that we cared about more than just clicks. We had other goals for this design: It needed to set expectations about what happens next; it needed to communicate quality, and we wanted it to build familiarity and trust in our brand.<\/p>\n We could have easily measured how many customers clicked one button versus another and used that data to pick an optimal button. But that approach would have ignored the big picture and other important goals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to make data-driven design<\/a> decisions, but relying on data alone ignores that some goals are difficult to measure. Data is very useful for incremental, tactical changes, but only if it\u2019s checked and balanced by our instincts and common sense.<\/p>\n Ever used Booking.com?<\/p>\n Search for a hotel and you\u2019ll see every listing plastered with a handful of conversion triggers and manufactured urgency\/scarcity indicators. Amongst all that crap, it\u2019s difficult to find the real info you\u2019re looking for. It\u2019s a terrible user experience for me. I\u2019m sure many others feel the same.<\/p>\n But they must have reliable data that says it works. Conversion rates must go up with each chintzy trigger they cram in. Data says: add more urgency messages, add more upsells, more, more, more. User experience says: less, less, less, just show me what I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n Data has become an authoritarian who has fired the other advisors who may have tempered his ill will. A designer\u2019s instinct would ask, \u201cDo people actually enjoy using this?\u201d or \u201cHow do these tactics reflect on our reputation and brand?\u201d<\/p>\n Booking.com\u2019s brand is cheap deals, so they\u2019re not worried about cheap tactics. If those tacky labels stoke enough FOMO to get a few more bookings, they\u2019ve won. It doesn\u2019t critically damage other goals if they\u2019re perceived as a little gaudy in the process.<\/p>\n But not every business has the luxury of caring only about clicks and conversions. You may need to convey quality and trust. Or exclusivity and class. Does cramming in data-driven conversion triggers serve those goals too? Or would building a more focused and delightful user experience better speak to your user\u2019s needs?<\/p>\n Digital interface design is going through a bland period of sameness<\/a>. I see it in my own work, and I worry it\u2019s becoming hard to escape from.<\/p>\n You could blame Apple and Google for publishing good design systems, and then everyone else trying to look the same. You could blame WordPress for the proliferation of content-agnostic templates \u2014 pulling apart the age-old marriage of content and designer. Or you could blame platforms like Dribbble that amplify trends and superficial eye-candy.<\/p>\n I\u2019d argue that data-driven design also plays a role in why all websites look the same.<\/p>\n We\u2019re all scared to experiment and reinvent the wheel because data\u2019s already proven that the wheels we\u2019ve got work well enough. When our Agile processes are geared toward efficiency, it\u2019s too costly to prototype and test innovative solutions. So we blindly churn out the same tried and true solutions over and over again.<\/p>\n Design \u201cprocess\u201d has replaced instinct as the new skill to fetishize. Some say that everyone is a designer if they can only follow the same processes we do. While that\u2019s not true<\/a>, it still leads to design decisions being made without the temperance of a professional designer\u2019s instincts and experience. It creates more generic-looking interfaces that may perform well in numbers but fall short of appealing to our senses.<\/p>\n
\nWhile most data is quantitative and very objective, you can also collect qualitative data about your users\u2019 behaviour, feelings, and personal impressions.<\/p>\nA designer\u2019s instinct<\/h2>\n
Clicks and conversions aren\u2019t your only goals<\/h2>\n
When data-driven design gets fugly<\/h2>\n
Data-driven sameness<\/h2>\n