While the software design industry is going gaga over tools like framerjs, Quartz Composer, and Indigo Studio, none of these tools address a critical issue plaguing much of the industry: designing with real data.
When designing experiences that require users to make actionable decisions, it is virtually impossible to evaluate the success or failure of a design without real data present in the comp or prototype. While these tools claim to bring your designs to life by allowing you to add touch gestures and transitions, they fall short of incorporating what really matters for the evaluation of a design.

In this session, we will start by outlining the rationale for instrumenting your designs with data by showing examples of how real data in designs results in better designs. We'll then get practical and demonstrate specific techniques for gathering and generating data and show a few methods to incorporate this into comps within InDesign or Illustrator. Finally, we'll discuss, at a higher level, how to use these techniques to evaluate the success or failure of a design. The audience will be shown live demos of the techniques and not just slides talking about theory.

This session will help the intermediate or experienced designer expand their design prowess by breathing new life into their stale and static comps. The participant will walk away understanding the tradeoffs around when to choose to incorporate real data and when a static comp can perform just as well. Most importantly, the participant will have been exposed to the tools they need to incorporate these techniques into their day to day design work.