Researching UX: Analytics

Getting Set Up

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. — Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

Getting things set up right before you begin analysis is critically important. If the data you’re analyzing is incorrect or incomplete, you’ll risk coming to incorrect conclusions and wasting time fixing problems that aren’t there. You might also act on false positives—for example, replicating something that looks to be working well, but actually isn’t.

You’ll also need to be confident in the data. As stated in the previous chapter, the data you get from your analytics package is “black and white”, so you need to be sure the numbers are as accurate ...