The Case for DX: Why Data Experience Matters (Part 2)

DX of External Stakeholders (AKA: Customers, Users, etc.)

The right quantity, design, and searchability of embedded analytics within your product, in addition to analytics bots as they become more fine-tuned and useful, can make or break your user’s DX.

In Part 1 we discussed why data culture matters, as well as how data-related interactions will undoubtedly affect your stakeholders’ perceptions, engagement, and investment in your company as much as UX does.

A Refresher: What is DX?

Data Experience: The various way(s) in which stakeholders — both internal and external — interact with your data and the data culture of your company.

Data experience is comprised of four kinds of interactions:

1. Consumption
2. Inquiry
3. Exploration
4. Discovery

This post will explore how each of these interaction types will affect your external stakeholders (aka: customers, users, etc.), as well as describe actionable suggestions for how these interactions can improve the DX of users.

The TL;DR of this post is that the right quantity, design, and searchability of embedded analytics within your product, in addition to analytics bots as they become more fine-tuned and useful, can make or break your user’s DX.

(For the sake of clarity, we’ll use “users” in the rest of the post as a reference to any and all external stakeholders.)

Consumption:

Working definition: The one-way street of data inflow and absorption your users experience. This includes but is not limited to top-level descriptive statistics like usage rates, as well as simple visualizations, etc.

Suggestions to enhance DX:

• Knowing your user base and finding the right balance between too much data and too little for their level of understanding is critical. Providing too much data might overwhelm them, and too little might detract from your product or the DX. How do you find the baby-bear-bed version (“juuust right”) of analytics for your users? Ask them! And, like we said in Part 2: design and UI matters, so invest in making the data more attractive to look at and consume.
• Improving Customer Satisfaction with Simple Analytics

Inquiry:

Working definition: The process of asking questions when there is something you want to know more about. User inquiry is usually about their own experience with the product, but can extend to the global product community or the product in general.

Suggestions to enhance DX:

• Leverage the structure of an FAQ section and combine it with customer-specific data as the answers. For example, lead customers to ask certain questions by providing pre-determined inquiries in an FAQ format, but fill the answers with their own data. Customers may have questions or curiosities, but may also not know exactly how or what to ask. Give them the questions they want to ask, and then give them their own answers. With an “Other” section you can collect new and unique inquiries and aggregate them to see if the section needs to be modified.
• FAQs Still Deliver Great Value

Exploration:

Working definition: When users can follow their curiosities and questions to learn more. This can be as simple as an FAQ section (mentioned above) or dynamic embedded analytics. Long story short — give your users access to the data so that they can learn on their own!

Suggestions to enhance DX:

• Data exploration is synonymous with embedded analytics. However, as embedded analytics grows and becomes more ubiquitous in apps, more people are turning towards advanced tools like embedded self-service tools. No longer is a general, one-size fits all approach to data sufficient for your users. They expect the ability to explore their own data and learn in their own ways.
• Embracing the future of embedded analytics now

Discovery:

Working definition: The value that comes from learning something new via data exploration. Even if it’s not actionable or fully connected to the core user experience, data discovery contributes tremendously to the user’s DX.

Suggestions to enhance DX:

• Whether users get what they need or find what they’re looking for through consumption, inquiry, and exploration, the discovery interactions they experience in your product and their sense of learning is what is going to contribute to their DX the most. (It is also directly connected to retention rates.)
• Get Ready for the Analytics Bot Invasion

Missed Part 1?

The Case for DX: Why Data Experience Matters (Part 1)