Digital Design Blog

Futures of Entertainment Metrics + Measurement Panel: UCD Still King

Panel Topic: Metrics + Measurement
Panelists: Bruce Leichtman (Leichtman Research Group), Stacey Lynn Schulman (Turner Broadcasting), Maury Giles (GSD&M Idea City), Jim Nail (TMS Media Intelligence/Cymfony)

There was no silver-bullet metric or measurement presented by the panel, but it was generally a good, interesting talk about the lack of any real good metrics and the impacts that has on the industry.

Something great and surprising did come out of the talk for me, though. In sort of small way, the panel validated the work of Avenue A | Razorfish and the user experience community. Maury Giles from GSD&M spoke about how his company’s found some success in researching the audience’s decision making process and mapping out places in the process to reach the audience.

It sounded to me like they were using a user-centered design process.
And that’s great - it’s always good to hear more people are getting hip to it, even while it’s strange to hear it’s not a more common practice. UCD is the foundation of all our work at AA/RF and I can’t imagine working without it. Data can be powerfully clarifying, but if you don’t understand your user and their relationship with you, that data is just another useless status report. Data tells you what’s happening, but only the users can tell you why. And only that why can really give you strategy.