You are a designer, or a coder, or a manager. Maybe you are even a unicorn. But you are not a data scientist. Still, you want to get more out of the mountain of data you have about your site or app to create a better user experience. No problem. Learn a process of data thinking that will help you to analyze, visualize, and really use data about your website or app without all the bothersome math and python programming.

1. BE DATA INFormeD
without being a data scientist

2. Pamela
Pavliscak
(not meant to be spoken)
@paminthelab
Change Sciences

3. I <3 Data
but I’m still
learning

4. Today’s JOURNEY
data overload
the analyst
the threshold
poor signals
the abyss
return with elixir
data thinking
supertechnological aid
trophy metrics

5. 3 million emails
2 million Google searches
684,000 Facebook shares
$272,000 spent online shopping
100,000 tweets
3,600 photos to Instagram
2 million blog posts

6. 1 baby born
5 mobile phones activated
@paminthelab

7. Each person carries an average of
3 devices

8. 375 megabytes consumed
Per household each day

10. For now, data is focused on
Selling and surveillance

11. DATA
Being
Nothingness

12. BIG DATA
is a little scary

13. Big data is like teenage sex - everybody
talks about it, nobody really knows how
to do it, everyone thinks everyone else
is doing it, so everyone claims they are
doing it.
-Dan Ariely
“
@paminthelab

14. INSIGHT VACUUM

15. Think of data science like archeology
traces left behind

16. They came
<something, something>
They left

17. It’s the every person story

18. There are really three ways to use DATA

19. PROVE
something you know

20. Proving is about the bottom line

21. Numbers
KPIs & scores
@paminthelab

22. Strategic rather than tactical

23. TOO HIGH LEVEL for experience design

24. IMPROVE
something you can change

26. A lot of consistency
and a little experimentation

27. DISCOVER
something you don’t know

28. Look for patterns

29. Discovering is about relationships

30. How to Think
like a data scientist

31. curiosity
THINK WITH DATA
1

32. CONSIDER
measurable moments

33. Expectations (before)
Moments (during)
Memories (after)

34. The Experience Continuum
the long
before
just a
memory
weeks
days
hours
minutes
now
now
now
minutes
hours
days
almost
now
now
the
here after

35. remember
it’s people first

36. Behaviors
Interactions
Feelings
Attitudes

37. Start with buckets,
and count the things

38. hamburger icon test case

40. Our gut says no

41. PROBABILiTy
BE A BIT BAYESIAN
2

42. P (B | A) P (A)
P (A | B) =
P (B)
TRANSLATION
Belief + new evidence
= updated belief

43. Evaluate
the evidence

44. Analytics
Piwik, Clicky
Google
Chartbeat, Crazy Egg,
Mixpanel, KISS metrics

45. Social Media Data
Shoutlet
Reachli
Trackur
Topsy
Social Mention
Open Status
Google Trends

46. Other data sources
1. A/B tests
2. Surveys
3. Heatmaps
4. Quantified qualitative studies
5. Biometrics & eyetracking
6. Sales data
7. CRM data
8. Call center logs
9. Billing systems
10. Business intelligence systems

47. It’s really all behaviors & words

48. USE
degrees over absolutes

49. Pay attention to variation
@paminthelab

50. Correlation ≠ causation

51. It’s never 100% CERTAIN

53. Source: Exis
Subtle changes
make a difference

54. TRansparency
DESCRIBE YOUR BIAS
3

55. There is always a filter
HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY
PRINCIPLE (small data)
SIGNAL BIAS
(big data)

56. Even a big data source is not everyone

57. By studying something, we change it

58. Nice people skew studies
HUMAN CONTACT
NICE

59. There is a nice factor
TV Network Site ONLINE Study
0 20 40 60 80 100
TV Network Site LAB Study
0 20 40 60 80 100
Source: Change Sciences

61. gut feel
<bias>
one site

62. CoNTEXT
EMBRACE COMPLEXITY
4

63. COMbine forces
Quantitative & Qualitative

64. Balance subjective & objective

66. Not Curious
74% tapped right past
help of any kind

67. meaning
TELL A STORY
5

68. SKIP TO MEANING
5
4
3
2
1
0

69. Select
actionable detail

70. OVerview
zoom
filter

71. Audience
put a human face
on it

72. C-Suite
Team

73. CREATE
emotional impact

74. MENU IS
CLEARER
20% more people
clicked Menu than the
the icon alone
Source: Exis

75. I’ve been seeing that little doodad on
the site, but I just thought it was part of
the design.
-M, Millennial
“
Source: Change Sciences

77. Hamburger awareness
Q1 2013
Q2 2013
Q3 2013
Q4 2013
Q1 2014
Q2 2014
Source: Change Sciences
is on the rise

78. Data
thinking
1. Get curious
2. Think Bayesian
3. Explain bias
4. Embrace context
5. Show & tell

79. UX + DATA SCIENCE

80. BE DATA INFormeD
without being a data scientist
Pamela Pavliscak
@paminthelab
ChangeSciences.com