Now more than ever before, organisations are expected to do more with less, and making the most of your technology – i.e. helping users get more out of it – is a step in the right direction. Incorporating hard, empirical data into the application design process helps you do just that. Data-driven design, as it's often called, is the intersection between logical, left-brained data analysis and traditional “touchy feely” design. It makes sure your applications are designed based on how people actually use them, which means happier users – internal or external – and a thicker bottom line. User success, above all else.

The right-brained, heart-on-your sleeve side of design (making things look “pretty”) is undeniably important. We're all human, after all, and users will be more effective using technology that isn't drab and boring. But making things pretty isn't what data-driven design is all about.

What it is about, is getting to know the people using your technology on a scale that just isn't possible with qualitative, “touchy-feely” methods like user groups and in-person surveys. In other words, it's about tracking the way hundreds, thousands or even millions of people use your technology and using that data to make things easier for them.

Take an internal CRM used by a sales department as an example. Every day, thousands of sales reps (depending on the size of the organisation) will interact with the app, producing lots of data points – most and least popular pages, operations that typically take the longest, most frequently requested information etc. – to be logged.

Smart, data-driven designers would make the most of all of that data. They could, for example, use it to pinpoint the operations that are taking users the longest, and then redesign those parts of the application to make the information they need more accessible.

The benefits here are obvious. By combining data with design, organisations are significantly improving the way people interact with their technology. They're adapting based on usage, not hunches. For the enterprise, that means more productive employees and happier customers.

Find out how Mobile apps in the cloud (MaaS) from Certus can help build user friendly apps to transform the way employees and customers interact with your enterprise technology.