I am a usability researcher by trade. The link here shows the essence of what I first enjoyed about statistics in college.
It also shows why I focus so much more of my time on presentation and reporting, visualizations and persuasion at work, and less time on over analysis, the topic of my next blog article.
The holy grail of research to me is to communicate data in a persuasive way, so that people see immediately what they need to make a decision, based on truth, fact, the real picture.
We are influencers of design, and of process on our usability research team, sometimes others on the project team wonder why we keep talking about the design and the information architecture, when we are not 'per say' responsible for these things. The reality is, the client will always be the one to make the decisions, and the way I see my job, it is to fully inform of the consequences of these decisions, of the current situation, and what can be acheived in the ideal state.
It is actually how I define success in my role here where I work. Watch this neat little 4 minute video, and you will get a sense of the way I approach my job.
