Hi Peter, My answer about "listening to data" is "it depends". If the data is, your revenue has fallen X% and the data can SHOW that a design decision led to that fall (as opposed to other contexts such as economy, politics, quality of goods being sold, etc.) then of course I'll listen to it.
If the data is a "usability test" of users in a lab, it really depends on how, what and why it is being tested and what the test may or may not prove and are we talking about "better" by .1% or are we talking "better" by say 75%? And what was the quality of the A/B results themselves. Did one lead to direct failure and other 100% success? What if A had a higher efficiency factor, but led to less enjoyment? and B had lower efficiency, but led to greater enjoyment? Both led to some change in revenue generating activity but non-correlative. Blah blah blah. This can go on for generations. What I know for sure, Is that I don't trust the lab. Never have, and probably never will. Results from logs, sales, observations of use in the field. These I believe in deeply. Now, your question was asking, what is design and what isn't. And that is a different question. My point was one of defining a continuum and setting up an absolute, so to suggest that listening or not listening to data is or isn't design is absurd. What it is, is a continuum and usually a balance leads to best practice (not "best practices"). -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40237 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
