DESIGN FOR IMPACT

Weigel offers a one-stop guide to improve product design for customers.

In her nonfiction debut, the author, a senior design manager, shares tips and strategies for product development based on the overall framework of “Good Experimental Design,” which she describes as a way to move the whole process “beyondopinion”: “It uses research, A/B testing, and data analysis to create reliable evidence, which enables consistently better decision-making.” Objective evidence is at the heart of what Weigel refers to as “Conversion Design,” which rests on three key elements: Design, Science, and Business. “Accessibilityis if something is possible to do,” she writes; “Usabilityis if something is easy to do.” In these pages, she offers a wide-ranging approach to aligning both. The author covers basic terminology (“contrary to popular belief, the idea behind hypothesis testing is notto prove the alternate hypothesis true,” she writes. “It is to be extremely skeptical of the alternate hypothesis and assume the null hypothesis is true”), explains what makes some experiments effective, and details concepts like controls, randomization, and experimental variables. The book is lavishly illustrated with graphs, charts, colorful visuals, and highlighted insets on subjects such as “Expert advice from the field.” From fundamentals to more specialized topics like work processes and stakeholder responsibilities, Weigel is an energetic, absolutely winning guide. “I’ve lived about a hundred lives in my short time on this planet,” she writes, and readers will believe it—these pages brim with lessons learned from experience and hard-earned wisdom. There’s no such thing as one “right” decision in experimentation, the author cautions, and in the world of Conversion Design, seeming paradoxes abound: Processes can be efficient but not effective, workers can be productive but not efficient, and so on. With tremendous engagement and clarity, Weigel explains it all.

A wonderfully readable field guide to making better designs and getting better end results.