ABSTRACT
Most new products fail within the first few months after launch. Science is a self-correcting method for discovering the truth about things. Evidence supporting a design or marketing decision might be in the form of results from a market research study, a usability test or observational field research; or it might be an account manager’s record of customer requests for a certain product or feature, or a pattern of customer helpline questions. Until now, metrics-based testing has played a minor role in user-centered design projects when compared with lab-based testing. But the current avalanche of cheap, quick and reliable online tools will surely reverse that trend. To understand non-response error, imagine the people devised a survey to measure people’s experience with the internet. Similarly, a web survey will exclude people who don’t have access to the internet such as lower socioeconomic groups, the homeless and people who just don’t use digital channels.
