You’ll just need to find a compromise between your tastes and empirical results.
There’s still room for creativity in a data-driven approach. But, if you ultimately want to grow your website, you must prioritize ease-of-use and performance first. You might also be skeptical of data-driven design because of its potential to stifle creativity. But, a data-driven approach gets you much closer to the optimal UX than relying on instincts and personal opinions alone. It would be silly to try to optimize every single element of your website - you might run out of funding before your site even launches. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. Your personal preferences will somehow find a way in. It’s important to note that no design process, data-driven or not, is 100% objective. Numerous case studies and research show companies that employ data-driven techniques see fast growth in conversion rates and sales - indicators of higher engagement and better UX. A data-driven approach helps you craft an experience for users, informed by users. It’s here that we arrive at a powerful solution to this gap in understanding: data-driven design.īy allowing data from user interactions and feedback to drive our design decisions, you mitigate your own biases and preconceptions in the design process. For the reasons described above, most designers operating on baseless predictions will miss the mark with users. In other words, we project our own assumptions onto others when trying to predict their thoughts and actions. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, the false-consensus effect is the “tendency to assume that others share their beliefs and will behave similarly in a given context.” This is a result of a common psychological phenomenon called the false-consensus effect. You worked hard on them!)Īnd yet, so many website owners default to their own feelings in the design process.
(For the record, it’s okay to feel this way.
You might be emotionally attached to your designs, and view them as a reflection of your professional self.You’re probably more tech-savvy than the average visitor.You might be of a different demographic background than most users.You’re influenced by your previous design projects and their successes/failures.
You possess better knowledge of your website and how to use it.Your design preferences, and the preferences of your team or organization, do not match those of your target user base. Remember that, as a designer, you are not the same as the users you design for. Unfortunately, it’s easy to neglect the latter in pursuit of the former if you rely solely on instincts. The best web design strikes a balance between an engaging user experience and an intuitive user experience. Why Should You Use Data-Driven Design Methods? While previous experience and innate design sense may also play a role in the process, these are secondary to insights taken from user data. This helps create a pleasing user experience (UX), while leads to more website traffic and online conversions.ĭata-driven web designers place empirical evidence - that is, evidence which can be directly observed by us through tests - at the forefront of the design process. The purpose of data-driven design is to understand and prioritize users’ needs through observable tests. Data-driven design is an approach to web design that is informed primarily by user data.