Main conference presentation

Intelligent inter(RE)action: An argument for a data-driven approach to UI design

Garrick Schmitt, Marisa Gallagher

Saturday March 24 2007, 2:45 - 3:30PM

More than ten years ago, on August 9th 1995, the Netscape initial public stock offering (IPO) ushered in the rise of the commercial Web. It enabled a very lo-fi experience, where design work was focused on extending the printed page metaphor online. Since then, much of what we do and experience on the Internet as end-users has changed dramatically. Today we watch videos on YouTube, chat with friends through a host of IM services, connect with people on MySpace and post our photos to the world on Flickr. Most impressively, this is all rendered dynamically on top of one of the most impressive data-rich platforms ever imagined.

Much has been said and written about how designers are faced with a new set of interaction paradigms in a Web 2.0 world (emerging navigation, mash-ups, tag clouds, multi-channel systems, AJAX UIs, etc.). But what about data? How are we preparing to mine the data-rich platforms that underpin the experiences we create? As User Experience practitioners, how must we evolve?

In my presentation "Intelligent Inter(RE)action" I'll argue that a data-driven approach to design is the ideal model for today's web-based application design and development. It is a fast, agile approach that eschews over-reliance on qualitative field research in favor of leveraging existing data-rich platforms to inform design decisions. It forces us, as designers and strategists, to become much more analytic yet simultaneously rely on our own instincts to begin designing and prototyping much faster. This methodology redefines the notion of "participatory design", leaping out of the lab and into the world.

From "beta launches" to "click density analysis", I'll look at the tools and methods that industry leaders such as Google, Yahoo!, Salesforce.com and Avenue A | Razorfish use to deliver optimal design performance.

Specifically, I'll walk through several case studies to demonstrate how we use data to look for insights across all aspects of a user or customer experience, including advertising, search and email. We'll examine how data-mining can alter common misconceptions around customer segmentation. Looking forward, I'll discuss the need for the creation of an ongoing roadmap for site optimization; consider the essential data points involved in tracking the product lifecycle, and conclude with the tactics necessary for organizations to create better user experiences.