I’m all for capturing data and analyzing it six ways till Sunday. But just because you have the tools doesn’t mean you should use them at the expense of everything else. I remember getting my first lesson on the golden ratio in design school. For the next three years after that, every project I created was guided by the golden ratio so much so that you could almost see Pythagoras himself peering back at you. My work started looking as stiff as the square root of five. Eventually, I laid off the math formulas a bit and allowed myself to think and create without a T-square and calculator at my side and, what do you know; my work began to take on a fresh new life. Till this day I carry around the knowledge of the golden ratio in the back of my mind when designing, but by no means do I rely exclusively on it to guide my process. But is this what’s happening in the online world? Are we relying too heavily on the fact that we can track clicks and behaviors online to guide us in crafting marketing messaging? In a recent Mediapost article I read that some companies who are experts in the neuro-marketing research field actually use CAT scans to collect data on reactions to ad campaigns. Yes, the same CAT scans you find in hospitals and neurology labs. Do we really need input on eye-tracking or facial recognition technology just to make an ad? Or how about a blog? By the way, if you are reading this far, I’m watching your every move.
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