Data and Design:BFFs or Frenemies?Steve Mulder @muldermedia

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UX & Design

Research

Testing

Analytics

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Trap #1We design by blindly following data

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Trap #2We measure the wrong thing

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Trap #3We become optimizers instead of designers

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Optimization via A/B or usability testing

The danger of optimizing to a local maximum

Local maximum

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1. Data is the platform from which we leap

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For NPR, ratings data tell us about listening

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Third-party research validates trends in media fragmentation and digital adoption

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Channels proliferate, presenting both opportunity and challenge

“Radio isn’t going away, it’s going everywhere.”

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Our own research and personas reveal changing consumer behaviors & opportunities

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It’s not about building things that users know to ask for

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New digital interfaces in familiar locations (connected car)

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Experiments with new listening experiences

Exploring experiences that meet needs users can’t yet articulate

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2. Data helps us know how high we’ve jumped

and whether to keep going

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The Facebook experiment: Local station stories geo-targeted on NPR’s Facebook stream

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Local stories saw consistently higher engagement and grew local audience

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Pivot and double-down: We created a workflow tool so we can scale this offering

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and more about

continuous learning

3. It’s less about achieving goals

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Yes, this sounds like Lean Startup thinking

Assumption/hypothesis

Minimum Viable Product

Analytics, research, testing

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Designing choice in the new NPR app

Original design: Give users more control/choices

Hypothesis to test: Fewer immediate choices + simplicity = longer listening

Results: Listening time up 8%

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Usability testing (and third-party research) on the infamous hamburger nav

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Walking the narrow path

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