Analytics and data-driven decision making have a distinct appeal in today’s digital landscape. We have more information than ever before about how people engage with our social media posts, our digital ads, and our website. And yet, every website redesign project starts with a list of user pain points, and everyone wants to design a human-centric experience. And sometimes a single stakeholder comes along and makes a decision that isn’t related to either data science or user research.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to gather a range of inputs and the types of questions to ask people and from the data. We’ll walk through different scenarios and together, figure out which metrics or stakeholder priorities to focus on.

You’ll see how these decisions can impact information architecture and content priorities for your own projects. This workshop will be interactive, using realistic use cases from the higher education context, and giving you a chance to collaborate with others in small groups.

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

• User research techniques – how much testing and interviewing do we need to inform decisions?
• The benefits and pitfalls of allowing analytics to dictate design and content decisions
• Examples of KPIs to focus on, to make using your analytics data less overwhelming
• How to get the most value out of stakeholder input and the dangers of design by committee