ARTICLE SUMMARY: All designers know how important data is to any project we undertake. Just as important as the data itself is the need to know how to really “think’ about that data in order to maximize its effect on our target audience.
Thinking indirectly about data means understanding the broader context, hidden patterns, and implications beyond the immediate and the obvious. We need to learn how to use our design skills and processes to persuade audiences to empathize with our users, data can be that competitive edge that will help you in this weird job market.
“The most critical lesson about Data: think indirectly” by Kai Wong teaches you how to think indirectly about data and use that knowledge to your advantage. Kai talks about
- What does it mean to think Indirectly about data
- Data professionals, Queries, and thinking before looking at data
- Why are you even looking at a dataset
Data doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s important to consider the context in which data was collected and how it relates to the problem you’re trying to solve. You cannot take data at face value, you need to challenge your assumptions about what the data means and consider alternative explanations.
You need to incorporate knowledge and techniques from various fields to enrich your analysis. For example, using psychological insights to understand user behavior data. We should also recognize the limitations and potential biases in our data and consider how these might affect our conclusions and how you can mitigate them.
This is a great article with a lot of good information.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
