The Made Shop: Handmade Digital

"The Box" by engineering firm Bot & Dolly

SHOULD DESIGNERS TRUST THEIR INSTINCTS€” OR THE DATA?

By: Braden Kowitz, Google Ventures

For many tech companies, design is no longer subjective.  Instead, it’s all about data. Analytics click and hum behind the scenes, measuring the effectiveness of even the tiniest design decisions. This constant data-stream plays an increasing role in determining what new products we will use, and what forms they might take. And when we think about the future of design and technology, we bump into an uncomfortable question: do human design instincts even matter anymore?

In the design world, there’s always been a dichotomy between data and instinct. Design departments — think Mad Men — were once driven by the belief that some people are gifted with an innate design sense. They glorified gut “instinct” because it was extremely difficult to measure the effectiveness of designs in progress; designers had to wait until a product shipped to learn if their ideas were any good. But today’s digital products — think Facebook and Google — glorify the “data” instead; it’s now possible to measure each design element among hundreds of variations until the perfect outcome is selected.

For designers, this influx of data can be frustrating. If you thought you were hired for your good taste, you’ll quickly get discouraged in a culture where tech companies meticulously test 41 shades of blue. Imagine convincing a team to trust your gut instincts when cold hard data says you’re wrong. How do you simplify a crowded homepage when the data scientists agree it’s ugly, but tell you it signs up customers faster?

From my perspective working with over 80 product teams, data is important, but there’s no replacement for design instincts built on a foundation of experiences — including failures. As engineering and design become ever closer collaborators, the biggest challenge is to make decisions through a careful balance between data and instinct.

Instincts are made, not born

We all know that following your instincts is sometimes a bad idea. A quick look at Apple’s infamous round USB mouse or Segway’s first weeks should be enough to warn designers and business leaders alike that having too much confidence in one’s “design instincts” can be dangerous.

No designer is born knowing exactly what their customers will want, or how people will behave when faced with a novel design. Instincts are learned. And they’re best learned by paying attention to the world around us. Luckily, the human brain is an incredible pattern-matching machine that develops and hones our instincts every time we’re exposed to a new design and the data about whether it worked.

Designers constantly pay attention to the world around them and notice when experiences fall short. We notice when door handles signal you should push, but require you to pull. We notice when the font on road signs change. We notice that little button on your phone that’s just a bit too hard to find while driving.

Trust me: paying this much attention to the details can get annoying.  Not just for designers but for those around them, too.

Still, there’s a benefit to being so aware. Whenever designers notice something is difficult, we mentally dissect why that’s happening, what design was involved, and how a different design might solve the problem. Each time we do this, we’re slowly building our design muscles — what people commonly refer to as “instinct.”

This introspection only gets us so far. And that’s because the audience for our designs are often so different than ourselves. Users might be older, younger, bring other cultural contexts, expectations, or be different in so many other ways.

Even when designers think they are exactly like their users, there’s one sure difference: Designers are experts in using their own product, while new customers are seeing and experiencing the product for the first time. Since there’s no way to unlearn what one already knows, it’s essential to do user research and see the world through our customers’ eyes.

Watching customers use a product through user research is the absolute best way to develop design instincts and avoid mistakes. User research is really just another stream of data, one that’s qualitative and messy, but still extremely valuable.

The Goldilocks of instinct-driven and data-driven design

Strong product teams develop habits that strengthen everyone’s design instincts. One of the best habits to build is a cadence of user research every few weeks. When the whole team watches customers struggle with their designs, it’s possible for everyone — from engineer to CEO — to possess brilliant design instincts.

Just don’t let these instincts run the show. The trick is to recognize situations when teams should dig for data, and when they should let instincts shine.

Curious about customer behavior? Use data. When it comes to digital products, web and mobile analytics tell us exactly what customers do. Even if customers say they would never, ever, ever buy rainbow suspenders for their avatar, we just never know what people will do when we’re not watching. Better to trust the data and see what people actually do rather than trust what they say they’ll do.

Decisions about product quality? Use instinct. To build quality into a product, you have to pay attention to hundreds of details like crafting clear help content or moving that button 3 pixels to the left. None of these small changes individually would prove worthwhile with data. But taken together, they create an overall impression of quality — a halo effect that improves a product in many ways. So when wondering how much time to spend on the details, designers should trust their instincts.

Deciding between a small set of options? Use data. There’s nothing like an A/B test for making an incremental, tactical improvement. When trying to pick the just-right words for a homepage header, there’s little to be gained in arguing over the right copy. It’s better to test a few versions and pick the right one based on data. The key is to measure the metrics that really matter to the business longer term (such as sign ups, purchases, or user retention) instead of just measuring clicks.

Concerned with long-term impact? Use instinct. A good reputation takes years to build, but just one bad experience can destroy it. So when balancing between tactical easily measurable goals like more clicks, and long term goals like trustworthiness, it’s essential to listen carefully to your instincts. And if your instincts need a little boost, get curious: go out in the world, talk to people, and gather data. (Via)

---

It’s common to think of data and instincts as being opposing forces in design decisions. In reality, there’s a blurry line between the two. After all, instincts are built by observing the world around us, and those observations are just another stream of data. Statistics help us summarize and understand the hard data we collect, and instincts do the same for all the messy real-world experiences we observe. And that’s why the best products — the ones that people want to use, love to use — are built with a bit of both.

Epic.

Connecting...

This video will melt your heart. I promise.

David Rowan: Welcome to 2012

The Editor of Wired Offers a Glimpse Into Our Hyper-Networked Tomorrow

From social design to person-to-person networking, UK Wired’s David Rowan reveals the big ideas and tech-trends that will define our lives in 2012. With the discovery of the Earth-like planet Kepler-22b, faster-than-light neutrinos, and claims of cold fusion being achieved, a science fiction-esque world of tomorrow has never felt so close. “Wired is about the people and ideas that will be defining what life will be like for the rest of us in six months time,” explains Rowan of the magazine, whose recent cover stars have include tech icons Mark Zuckerberg, James Dyson and the late, lauded Steve Jobs. “The best way to predict the future is to hang out with some of the outliers already living it. We don’t make ‘predictions,’ but instead tell stories about the people and products that are exciting us before they’ve gone mainstream.” The impending mobile internet explosion in Africa, vastly ambitious revolutions in healthcare, and privatized space travel excite Rowan equally, although “getting the tube to run on time” would be his top discovery for 2012, he jokes. Currently working on a sequel to Wired’s inaugural conference in October 2011 and some exciting guest editorships, here Rowan unveils how social technology will re-define our lives in 2012.

Social design

The big push at Facebook right now is to find ways to let businesses build transactions via the social graph [the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related], from discovering your friends’ music through Spotify to planning travel through connected sites like Trippy. If you’re hiring for a job, buying ski gear, or choosing a university, why be swayed by general websites when you will have far greater trust for recommendations through friends, or friends of friends?

Naturalized interfaces

Forget having to get to grips with technology: there’s a big trend towards tech that responds to your normal bodily movements and your voice. It’s called the “natural user interface,” and Microsoft’s Kinect is a great example: a 3D depth-sensing camera that puts you in a computer game without your needing a joystick. Already there are companies like Tobii in Stockholm that are designing laptops with embedded eye-tracking cameras that let you navigate through folders using your eyes; and face-recognition services like Face.com that let you find your friends just by their facial patterns—which you may think is a bit spooky.

3D printing

What’s happened to digital “bits” is now happening to physical atoms: manufacturing processes are being democratized. This is thanks to the rise of the 3D printer, which can print out your designs layer by layer using steel, titanium, plastics, even chocolate. It will challenge existing notions of copyright: if you can print out someone else’s product design, and maybe alter it to your tastes, will that designer lose all control?

Person to person everything

The internet is empowering a whole range of new businesses that tap into peer-to-peer sharing of resources, for the greater good. For instance, there are foreign-currency services like Transferwise that connect people with dollars to sell with people who want euros for their dollars. Rather than pay bank commissions, you pay a token fee and both buyer and seller get a good deal. There’s also a growing trend for websites that let people rent out their car for hours or days at a time, helping you make money on a resource that’s just lying there. Yet again the internet challenges existing vested interests like the car-rental firms.

Network tracking

We’re heading for an era where there are sensors everywhere––on your skin, in the streets, in your electronic devices, all talking to the network in real time. The good news is the sensors will track your body’s output, alerting you to potential health risks or reminding you to get more sleep. The scarier news is that the network will know ever more about you, where you are, what you’re feeling and where you’ve been.

This is so much fun...!

Username or E-Mail

Password

Remember Me

Forgot your password?

» Copyright Infringement Notification. » Sorry, no problem.

Please enter your contact information and the details about this case.

E-Mail

Reason

Close.

Wacom just blew my mind!

Wacom introduces Inkling, a new digital sketch pen that captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Title: Paper Planes Artist: M.I.A. 

Time Warp Project

This video is both shocking in how sad and beautiful it is all at once. Done in CG techniques, 3Ds Mmax, Nuke, After Effects... ect. Great using the lighting, simple yet complex. By Brazilian filmmaker Uira Lamour, hope you like it. Have a great weekend and drive safe!

PlayButton

Now when you play a record, you can wear it too. Neat! www.playbuton.co

Dead Drops

A new project by Berlin based artist Aram Bartholl. Peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. If you are living in NYC, then you are in luck, check out these locations for 'Dead Drops':

87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 

Empire Fulton Ferry Park, 

235 Bowery, NY 

Union Square, NY 
540 West 21st Street, NY 

Lights

Continues the FIFA fever, Wieden + Kennedy's 'write the future' football campaign for Nike, as athletes become icons on the electric facade of johannesburg's life Centre. Each night the skyscraper comes to life through vibrant LED lights, highlighting the headline written by football fans on Twitter, and also showcase the hero they selected. What a great way to use light installation to spread the message!

Speed of Light - Making of Documentary. Directed and Edited by Georgia Polizzi

Blu

They are back with yet another amazing video! 

Wow, epic!

Beautiful Words

Tales of Unexpected

A cool video by Carl Burgess. Sashimi for lunch?

Logorama

Hopefully this video will keep you entertained while I am away resto and gallery hopping in Montreal. 

A short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5. Presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. This is super fun, but kids....COVER YOUR EARS! Have a wonderful weekend, au revoir!