Constructing and Evaluating Your Design Solution - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 168

Regardless of how this piece exists, in an ideal world you would now seek to assess
the visualization's effectiveness and impact in a post-launch setting. I say in an ideal
world because sometimes you simply don't have sufficient capacity or resources to
allocate to the post-launch evaluation.
However, you should still care to seek an assessment of how well your project has
served its purpose. Has the reaction and consequence of the work been consistent
with its intent and reason for being created, as we determined earlier in the process?
It is important to recall the following terms of reference because they frame the type
of feedback we seek:
• Was there a positive reaction to the piece we created?
• Did it deliver the appropriate tone of voice?
• Did it reach the intended audience type and volume?
• Were users able to effectively consume or discover insights?
• Where we had a set idea of the intended consequences of this work,
were they experienced?
• What problems did people experience, if any?
To obtain feedback of this type and breadth we must consider multiple channels.
Each of the following options provides an incremental level of evaluative value but
consequently also requires a proportionate increase in the amount of time, effort,
and probably cost to obtain:
• Metrics and benchmarks : For web-based visualizations there are a number
of easily obtainable measures to indicate the reach and popularity of your
project. The traditional analytic measures for page views, visits, and visitors
can now be easily supplemented with social media metrics such as Tweet
counts, Facebook likes, Google+ shares, and so on. These are very simple,
cheap, and accessible indicators to help you form a basic understanding of
your design's utilization. What you need to think about is: what does success
look like? What are the relative benchmarks of performance against these
measures that will inform your overall satisfaction?
• Client or customer feedback : Of course, the most tangible form of feedback
for many projects will come from those who have asked or commissioned
you (and hopefully paid you) to create the solution. You'll learn in no
uncertain terms whether or not what you created fell short, matched, or
exceeded their expectations. Sometimes, you have to judge yourself against
the requirements outlined to you and not the resulting performance. After
all, you can only respond to the brief you were given.