Data Literacy
Basic data comprehension is an essential skill today and a critical skill for tomorrow.
Data literacy is the ability to collect, understand, critique, analyze, and communicate various types of information, primarily numbers and often complex. Let’s look across the design field at all of the jobs were being able to comprehend and communicate data matters.
Designers are often data-driven, meaning they use data to inform their designs. This could be data about user behavior, trends, market analysis, or any number of other data sets. In web design, for example, useful data might include web traffic data, heat maps of user clicks, or data on which page elements are most often interacted with. A designer might use this data to redesign a website or individual web pages to be more user-friendly.
In another example, a product designer might use data about customer needs and wants, along with data about the product’s intended use, to inform their design. This data might come from surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other research methods. A designer might use this data to create a product that is more likely to meet customer needs and be successful in the market.
