More and more enterprises are beginning to realize the importance of excellent design to data. Excellent design can make boring data more intuitive and friendly, so as to help customers understand the meaning of data, establish a better relationship between enterprises and customers, and thus play a better role.

Many companies have always believed in the benefits of hoarding a large amount of data, and now they are looking for ways to use this data to benefit their customers. Big data provides enterprises in all walks of life with an opportunity to become more transparent, credible and stand out from the competition, and at the same time enables their users to get more personalized product and service experiences.

A large amount of data has caused great complexity, and the power of design can simplify the complex and make these data understandable to ordinary people, so design has its place in big data. Its function is to turn information into useful and meaningful opinions, give vivid meaning to cold data, and connect data with the complex world we live in. So how can enterprises make better use of design to make people change from "fear of data" to "love data"?

We are beginning to find that consumers' behaviors and expectations are changing under the influence of smart phones and other networked devices. These devices bring a large number of data points, revealing what information people need at any given moment and where they want to get it. Consumers have realized that their data is valuable, so they can expect or even ask each other to exchange their data with some value. Data has become a new currency, and enterprises should also look at data from this perspective. The more information people are willing to hand over, the greater the potential for enterprises to use this information to tailor their experiences to consumers. But people's concerns about privacy make this process a complex challenge.

For many enterprises, how to make users feel that they are using their data in a "cool" way, rather than using their data in a sneaky and uncomfortable way, is a difficult balance to grasp. The designer's solution to this challenge is to build a system that seems to magically respond to users' habits. Netflix, a video website, is a good example. Netflix carefully uses users' browsing data to recommend other videos that users may like, so that users feel that these videos are recommended to themselves. Foursquare, a mobile social networking site, has been transformed into a recommendation engine, which will recommend useful information and local preferential services to users according to their geographical location and different times of the day. As long as the enterprise properly regards the user's data as a service, the more information the user provides, the better the experience, thus gradually dispelling consumers' doubts that the enterprise may disclose the user's personal information.

Data will not automatically innovate for you. Data can show some patterns, help us predict the results, and also help us verify the theory. However, when developing a brand-new thing, the next generation of "killer" products cannot be born by data alone. If the screenwriter of Shuangfeng or the owner of Cirque du Soleil Canada only considers the problems within the data prediction range, then the audience's appreciation preference data may show that Shuangfeng tastes too strange, and other data will show how crazy it is to start a new circus in the increasingly depressed circus market.

For enterprises engaged in "innovative" business, good design is one of the key factors for success. Designers can help enterprises imagine their business positioning or re-imagine their existing business. Creativity is the key to invention and creation, and data is still very important for creative breakthrough-especially when it is combined with human unique imagination and intuition.

Traditionally, large enterprises like to let consultants tell them how to use data to serve the enterprise, so as to improve the efficiency of the company's business and make real-time decisions better. On the other hand, technicians like to build data in a flexible way. They will analyze, combine and cross-reference data to make it more efficient and intelligent.

Designers like to use data from completely different angles. They will intuitively think about how to make end users and living people benefit from data. Designers have a deep-rooted idea, that is, to focus on how to simplify things, with the sole purpose of pleasing end users, whether corporate users or ordinary consumers. Designers know how to visualize complex and scattered data, make it easy to understand, and more importantly, make it more human. Design can play a key role in how to adapt data to our complex life and real world. Every aspect of our life depends on various data services, and designers can bring story lines and human feelings to these services.

Simplicity has become the slogan of screen experience, especially for mobile devices. If a company wants to use data in a smarter way to benefit users, the design of services can bring concise functions to their most important services. The following examples illustrate the power that design-oriented data usage can produce.

There is a mobile operator named "3" in Sweden, which has turned the monthly phone bill from an annoying service into a useful service. Its "My3" mobile phone application allows users to see their usage data in real time and let them know how much their phone bill and traffic are left. If users don't have much talk time, they can get more credit through this application, and by the end of the month, users won't be surprised by the high phone bill. Users can also call customer service directly through this application, and it will tell you how long it takes to dial a customer service staff. This small application reshapes the user's experience of telephone charges, from a static and one-way notification mode to a personalized service, which can not only make adjustments according to the user's behavior, but also allow users to take immediate action.

This is a good example. It turns one of the most boring and possibly boring data in the world into another. And surprisingly, users like this service very much. As a phone bill application, users actually gave it an average high score of 4.5 stars in the app store.

The story of "3" also tells us what kind of gorgeous turn a company can achieve under the influence of inspiration. In the process of competing with other operators, "3" found another way to use user data and achieved success.

Google's Google Times service has changed the way doctors communicate with patients. Now, we see that medical professionals have begun to embrace the information and data revolution. They have begun to adopt a forward-looking attitude and adopt data solutions that can promote the relationship between doctors and patients.

SMART is a project jointly sponsored by Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, aiming at redesigning children's growth curve. The growth curve of children will be used in almost every visit of children. However, many parents don't know much about the information reflected by this curve. In some cases, this situation may lead to misunderstanding of the data of this curve, which may lead to disastrous consequences. SMART is design-oriented, and has established a brand-new application of children's growth curve, which is not only easy to read and understand, but also can be shared between doctors and parents of children. This application displays children's data from two perspectives, one is the doctor's perspective and the other is the parent's perspective. The latter uses a simplified version of the data, so doctors can better explain to parents the situation reflected by the growth curve and the significance of various proportional values. It does not use complex numerical values, but uses simple images to present the development of children, ensuring that doctors and parents can understand the situation of children.

Projects like SMART and My 3 are obviously increasing recently, and the core challenge is how to make ordinary people understand the meaning of various data. Obviously, many enterprises will face similar problems. Design can help enterprises explain the meaning of various data and find opportunities to use data to benefit customers through the following methods.

Use data as a guide, not a decision: use data to create a condition that is easy to understand and learn, but don't let the importance of data exceed creativity and inspiration, and don't ignore the importance of self-confidence.

Focus on customers: extend the insight and value of data from your enterprise to your customers.

Scramble the data and start over: we live in a chaotic world. If your data is pure, how can you adapt to this chaotic world? Use design to make data personalized and emotional and tell more stories.

Don't just understand the data, it is more important to understand people. Are you considering hiring another data analyst to explain the huge amount of data you have? In fact, why not hire a psychologist?

Learn elegance and simplicity. Data science can be complex, abstract and even ugly. Design can bring you simplicity and clarity. Excellent design can also help you present data in a beautiful and elegant way, attracting those who find the data boring.

Take a creative "leap of confidence". A creative process that combines intuition and imagination can bring innovations that cannot be completed by data alone. This is even more important if you want to reshape your business or invent something new.