Last year, I gave a talk at MeshU here in Toronto on bridging the gap between art & science through an approach called Evidence Based Design. Here's a slightly revised version of the presentation.
I posted a writeup on our company's blog: http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/2010/01/20/the-art-science-of-evidence-based-design/
5. Art Science
Focus look and feel architecture
3
Friday, January 22, 2010
6. Art Science
Focus look and feel architecture
Method intuition investigation
3
Friday, January 22, 2010
7. Art Science
Focus look and feel architecture
Method intuition investigation
Validation subjective testing, metrics
3
Friday, January 22, 2010
8. Science Art
Focus look and feel architecture
Method intuition investigation
Validation subjective testing, metrics
3
Friday, January 22, 2010
9. Science Art
Deterministic Open-Ended
4
Friday, January 22, 2010
10. “ A good experience is rich, something
worth exploring, telling others about,
and experiencing again.
It's overdetermined - or holistic - or
integrated. And being integrated makes
it (often) hard to explain, since one
can't truly reduce an integrated whole
to a simple cause.”
Mark Hurst
5
Friday, January 22, 2010
11. Science Art
Deterministic Open-Ended
6
Friday, January 22, 2010
12. Science Art
Deterministic Open-Ended
6
Friday, January 22, 2010
13. Science Art
Deterministic Evidence-based Open-Ended
6
Friday, January 22, 2010
15. Evidence-based medicine
“The conscientious, explicit and
judicious use of current best evidence
in making decisions about the care of
individual patients”
Sackett et al. 1996
Friday, January 22, 2010
30. Design inputs
3rd party research:
Business requirements relevant scholarship, Forrester
based on stakeholder reports, professional community,
interviews client-sponsored studies, analysis
Brief Ongoing collaboration:
Current architecture, working sessions, reviews
design, technology
Site Analytics
Demographic,
psychographic data
Heuristic Review
Competitive analysis:
best practices, emerging trends Anecdotal Evidence
Design Patterns inside, outside and beyond
competitive set
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Friday, January 22, 2010
31. At a minimum, we need:
Demographics, psychographics, behavioural
profiles for target users
Concrete analysis of current experience: what is
and isnʼt working today
Business goals, needs, requirements (functional,
non-functional) + domain knowledge
W
N
E
Competitive landscape: positioning with respect
S
to, best practices, recent innovations, trends
14
Friday, January 22, 2010
32. Inputs become evidence
when they are...
Durable
Actionable
Impactful
c.f. Subject to Change
15
Friday, January 22, 2010
34. Find corroborating data
Decline of daily newspapers
Rise of the internet
Source: Gallup, Dec 2008
17
Friday, January 22, 2010
35. Find corroborating data
Proliferation of blogs Proliferation of aggregators
Source: Forrester, June 2008
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Friday, January 22, 2010
36. Find corroborating data
Carr calls this trend “unbundling”
The publisher’s goal [in print] is to make the
entire package as attractive as possible to a
broad set of readers and advertisers. The
newspaper as a whole is what matters, and
as a product it’s worth more than the sum of
its parts. When a newspaper moves online,
the bundle falls apart. Readers don’t flip
through a mix of stories, advertisements, and
other bits of content. They go directly to a
particular story that interests them, often
ignoring everything else.
Source: The Big Switch (Carr 2008)
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Friday, January 22, 2010
37. Find corroborating data
CNN’s Backstory
NY Times’ Topics
Adrian Holovaty’s
Everyblock.com
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Friday, January 22, 2010
38. Build narratives
More templates
& more flexible Make it more
templates adaptable and
responsive
Let me create
editors custom content
packages
executives
sales
What we hear: give us flexibility
18
Friday, January 22, 2010
39. Create focusers
G o rdo n Ma rc u s
Natalie
Personas Design Principles
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary/Anti Always be About Now; Own Local; Go
Beyond the Story; Spark Conversations
19
Friday, January 22, 2010
40. Marcus Jawai
Tertiary/anti persona
Marcus is a single, 29-year-old independent Recently, he has been noticing a slow-down in
clothing store owner and designer living and business. He’s worried about the economy and
working in downtown Toronto. has started to pay more attention to business
news online and on TV.
Naturally inclined to stay on top of style, he
monitors fashion and design blogs for Marcus feels that the current political, social
inspiration and entertainment. In 2008, Marcus and technological climate is an exciting time to
spent a lot of his time online following the US be in. Though he faces the stresses of a small
Presidential race. Marcus became interested in business owner, he maintains positive and
following the Obama campaign through various upbeat.
media sites, most notably CNN.com
Design Implications
• Watch out for Marcus! His eclectic and idiosyncratic online habits make him tough to predict
and please.
• Marcus wants to be in control—he uses blogs, aggregators, and other metafilters to source
information
• Likes to “snack” on selective information: will impulsively drop into an article and scan for
details, then move on
• Marcus will consume content more thoroughly if it appeals directly to his interests (e.g. style
sa blog, special report on economy and small businesses in Toronto)
m • It’s about serendipity with Marcus, so promoting this becomes key.
pl • Advanced tools (e.g. personalization) aren’t necessarily going to appeal to Marcus.
e
20
Friday, January 22, 2010
41. Design Principles
1. Always be about now
“No matter where I am in the site, Iʼm always in touch with whatʼs happening right now.”
2. Own local
“thestar.com is my cityʼs news site. If itʼs happening in the GTA, thereʼs no reason to
go anywhere else.”
3. Go beyond the story
“This site gives me more than just the news. Itʼs constantly wowing me with new ways
to see, understand and engage my world.”
4. Spark conversations
“The Star connects me to my community and interesting people across Canada”
sa
m
pl
e
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Friday, January 22, 2010
43. Prototype and assess
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Friday, January 22, 2010
47. Identify gaps
www.imgspark.com
26
Friday, January 22, 2010
48. Identify gaps do A/B testing
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Friday, January 22, 2010
49. Quick recap
‣ Evidence-based design goal: research informs
design decisions
‣ Our process funnels research into multiple
iterations of exploration and refinement
‣ Inputs becomes evidence when they are
durable, actionable and impactful
‣ Prototype and test critical/complex interactions
‣ A/B/multivariate test to optimize
28
Friday, January 22, 2010
50. “ A good experience is rich, something
worth exploring, telling others about,
and experiencing again.
It's overdetermined - or holistic - or
integrated. And being integrated makes
it (often) hard to explain, since one
can't truly reduce an integrated whole
to a simple cause.”
Mark Hurst
29
Friday, January 22, 2010