One of the most inspiring presentations I’ve ever seen was delivered by a senior strategist at my former agency. The presentation had no pretty images. The typography was bland. The colours clashed. There was no heartfelt personal account. The presentation was on data. Specifically, data in regards to performance on our digital projects.
As designers, we exist in an abstract world. A world filled with subjective opinions and educated assumptions. It is a place filled with conventional wisdom and too often, decisions based on preferences over data.
During the presentation, the strategist brought up the topic of analytics. They were making a point that we need to request analytics from every client pre and post digital projects as a way of quantifying creative success.
It seemed so obvious. Why have we not been doing this all along?
Getting an approval from a client feels great, but often, it doesn’t translate to anything.
As the user experience industry blossomed, it was like a breath of fresh air for digital creatives everywhere. Finally, something concrete. Finally, something measurable. Finally, something with evidence to measure the success of our creative output.
At the end of the day, we are not designing for our client. We are designing for the people our client is serving. The tricky part is, that we are designing for our client. Just the same way we are designing for our creative director and our boss. They are the necessary gatekeepers to the true audience we are trying to reach.
On any project, client education is a big part of the bag. Whether it be managing expectations, explaining unique ways of working, or equally importantly, informing on tangible ways of measuring creative success.
Because contrary to what they may think, our clients don’t always know how their customers use their product. In fact, neither do we.
We have some pretty solid guesses. Certainly some very informed opinions, and definitely some best practices, but at the end of the day, they are just that — guesses.
Using data forces you to cut away the noise. Too often, we make decisions based on vanity. We execute projects based on things that look good and sound nice, but which offer minimal value to the people we are trying to serve. Too often, we accept our educated assumptions as truth, rather than investigating and verifying those claims.
Transitioning from measuring design based on a visual criteria to one based on data can be a tricky undertaking. It requires significantly more planning. It requires a certain level of patience and education, whether that be with your clients, or even the members of your team. But it is undeniably useful, and often quite revealing.
The lack of objectiveness to the design world can make it a frustrating place. Introducing new ways of working will always be a difficult task. But measuring creative output in terms of data is the only concrete option we have to understand the efficacy of our work. Accepting this truth requires significant changes in thinking, certainly in planning, but it offers the opportunity to quantify our work in an entirely new way — results.
