Analytics are of enormous value to digital marketers but be careful not to lose sight of what your customers actually want, think and feel. An understanding of your customers on this level is needed to drive innovation and inform future strategy, planning and design decision making. It’s not an 'either /or' choice but rather a question of using the right kind of tools for the job.
Persona development can be contradictory. We use personas to validate and stress-test user journeys, scenarios, navigation models and so on, but we often don’t stress-test the personas themselves to see if they withstand scrutiny.
“They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong." Ronald Reagan
Behind the scenes, today’s products and services are very complex. The challenge for design teams grows and companies struggle to create the increasingly important illusion of simplicity.
It is easy for designers to jump to conclusions prematurely. After seeing one usability testing session and identifying a flaw in the user interface, it’s tempting to design a solution that seems to fix it. But problems arise if one does not take the time to uncover the underlying issues: are you fixing the problem, or a symptom of the problem?
