Today I got an interesting anomaly email from a service I use called Next Big Sound. Actually, I don’t use the service too much, but it crosses two of my interests: music and analytics. Next Big Sound aggregates music playback data from various music providers (Spotify, Pandora, etc) and also, apparently, tries to correlate changes … Read moreUI Review: Next Big Sound (Music Analytics) – Part 1
Post-truth. The 2016 word of the year. Yikes for some of us. This got me thinking about UX around data, analytics, and information, and what it means when we present conclusions or advice based on quantitative data. Are those “facts”? If your product generates actionable information for customers, then during your design phase, your team … Read more“Post-truth,” data analytics, and omissions–are these design considerations?
You can save $10,000 / week pretty easily through better design. One of the values that clients don’t always understand is that good design not only improves customer experience and drives revenue, but it also reduces time wasted on engineering the wrong product/feature/design. My solution to this is to get design involved ahead of engineering … Read moreHow can better design save your business $10,000 this week?
Let’s talk about honeymoons for a second. I don’t mean that trip to Cancun, but instead, those first couple weeks of product use where people are evaluating your service, and hoping to realize some of the values that drove them to become your customer in the first place. Some people call this “onboarding,” but I … Read moreDesigning an Effective Honeymoon Phase in Your Product (Part 1)
If you’re in the analytics space, then you almost certainly have at least one “dashboard” customers use. I generally define dashboards as the landing page for your product when people log in, and so keep that in mind as you browse today’s design suggestions: Your dashboard is probably too low on information density. Dashboards with … Read moreHere are (5) dashboard design suggestions you can start to apply today
Let’s jump to part 2! Last week I mentioned that the free DFA Self-Assessment Guide introduces ideas for designing a honeymoon user experience and how to audit your own product’s success in this phase of the customer lifecycle. Here in part 2, I want to share some specific actionable steps you can take to improve the honeymoon … Read moreDesigning an Effective Honeymoon Phase in Your Product (Part 2)
If you’re working on data or analytics products, then you’ll want to check this out whether it’s a refresher, or something to share with your team: Seeing Theory is a great visual introduction to probability and statistics from Brown University created specifically by Daniel Kunin. Enjoy! Visit http://students.brown.edu/seeing-theory/index.html More Free Insights: Subscribe Now to the … Read moreA Visual Introduction to Probability and Statistics
Here’s a super easy thing you can do today to evaluate your data product’s dashboard. If you’re displaying quantitative data of any sort, especially trends, then this will probably help you come up with opportunities to improve your design. Of course, testing the design with real users is always the best way to evaluate your … Read moreHere’s a fast way to evaluate the utility of your dashboard design
Yup, I said it. Just say, “no” to customer requests for features. Or rather, say, “why do you need that?” Today’s design tip is simple: build the word “why” into your vocabulary when talking to your customers. Be incessant until you “ladder up” and get to the meat of the matter. Asking “why” is critical designing great … Read moreStop giving customers what they ask for. Yup, you heard me right!
Do you have some good analytics that could be helping customers out….if they gave you the right inputs up front? Today’s lesson is about using your analytics to facilitate the process of completing a form that requires users to type in specific values to complete a task. I work on technical and analytics-driven products frequently, … Read more(3) ways to use your analytics to simplify form field entry