Is E-Commerce an Art or a Science? (Chris Jones & Rob Smith)

inspiring great retail

Is ecommerce an art or a science?

Rob Smith – Managing Director – @rob_smith Chris Jones – UX Director – @blueleafchris


Art or science?


Left brain or right brain?


Design or data?


Digital has changed the process


Used to be slow burn Now it’s launch fast, learn & improve


Time taken to reach 50 million users

•  Radio •  TV •  Facebook •  YouTube •  Angry Birds

38 years 13 years 4 years 6 months 50 days


Design or data?


The case for design


What is a designer?


We’re trained professionals!


So why ask your customers how to design your website?


We’re not artists


User centered design?!


Data is design by committee


If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll identify with no one


“I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues

of committees” G.K. Chesterton


Blurry focus groups


“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times,

people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”

Steve Jobs


We’re tribal animals


Give me something I can identify with and make my own


Brands are the differentiator


4th in 2008


Less dependent on paid search, cost per acquisition fell by 73%


Be creative, be brave, be unique


Vote design!

inspiring great retail 35

The case for data


Colouring in


What gets measured gets done


Designers add huge subjectivity


And so do most marketers too


The ‘Add to Basket’ problem


‘Chatty copy’ problem


‘Mystery meats’ problem


User centered design is a plural term


Booking.com? Ebay.com?


There is a tool for everything and no excuse


Human behaviour may not be simple


We are all made up of a set of patterns


We are sheep shepherded by the data overlords


Vote data!


Design or data? You decide…


Really, it’s about both


We’re lucky to live in these times


Data drives design drives data drives design drives data drives design drives data drives design drives data drives design drives data drives design drives data…


Play detective with data


Analytics What is happening?


User testing Why is it happening?


Once you have all the clues, design the solutions


Design + data = websites which work


Design is where art and science meet


Thank you J

Rob Smith – @rob_smith Chris Jones – @blueleafchris

Is E-Commerce an Art or a Science? (Chris Jones & Rob Smith)

Design

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