How Today’s Designers Can Use Data Even Without Being Data Experts: Key Lessons from Latest Global Research

Design is no longer merely about appearance in 2025, but it is driven by insights, creativity and, more and more, information. With advanced AI tools, smart analytics, and user-focused research changing the course of literally everything from product sketches to immersive digital experiences, the best designers today don’t just listen to their gut feeling about what customers want, they figure it out accurately. A research on the topic “Data-Enhanced Design: Engaging Designers in the Use of Quantitative Data for Product Development,” by K. Gorkovenko and team, published in International Journal of Design, 2023, reveals exactly that. 

What is this research about? 

The research paper discusses how designers, in particular, those with no data specialist expertise, can apply various types of real-world data, sensor data and video, to get a better picture of how people use products, and how to generate new ideas at the very beginning of the design cycle. 

The authors of the research established a workable test in which designers analyzed cycling data and video recordings to identify patterns, highlight significant moments and pose questions, demonstrating that one can move between technical and creative reasoning with straightforward annotation and visual means. In short, the paper concludes the fact that when the right approaches are used even non-expert designers can use the data to power their creative ideation and problem-solving making the design process more thoughtful and user-oriented at the very stage. 

You might be a student getting started in your design career, or you might be a veteran professional who needs to keep on top of the curve, either way, it is important to learn to understand design and data to develop solutions that really would shine in the creative environment of India.

Why Designers Should Care about Data?

Huge amounts of data like , speed, location, or even rider posture of a GoPro on a bicycle, are produced each day with every smart device and digital product. The research based on “Data-Enhanced Design: Engaging Designers in the Use of Quantitative Data for Product Development,” International Journal of Design, 2023, by K. Gorkovenko and team examines how such data in the form of multimodal information can be used by designers, even if they lack skills in statistics or code writing, to design superior products and more relevant user experiences.

How Was  the Research Done? 

• It involved 20 designers, engineers, and developers who held sessions where they got to look at actual cycling data (such as speed and GPS) and videos of actual bike rides.
• Participants were allowed to ask the cyclist questions directly, in a practical, imaginative manner.
• The goal: to find out whether designers can create helpful and human-focused product brainstorms based on data and simple analysis, with the help of user-friendly tools.

Key findings for the research 

1.To innovate, designers do not have to be data scientists.

Visual data, context, and personal observations (even of new statistics users) could be used by brainstorming, identifying issues, and even developing new bike and accessories designs.

2.Annotation and Marking Techniques Are Potent

Designers liked marking interesting moments in the data/video (“annotation”), which helped them stay creative and focused. This manual tagging of “aha!” moments bridges the gap between technology and the human side of design.

3.Simple Machine Learning Goes a Long Way

Even simple AI, such as data clustering or the identification of anomalies (such as a sudden halt or a bump in the road), was finding real value by the participants. They recommended that with automation they would have time saved and be able to think creatively.  

4.Visual, Flexible Tools are Better than Complex Dashboards.

Things like easy-to-use graphs, overlays with scene recognition, and the skills of questioning (“Show me every sharp turn”) made the data accessible and actionable for all, not just those people who are data experts.

5.Inspiration behind Personalisation and Safety.

The first thought that designers came up with was about bikes that are designed depending on their types of riding, alerts against risky situations, and functions that help in the maintenance and technology to promote fitness, and all this was based on the data on actual individuals.

6.The Future of Digital Twins and A/B Testing.

Best practices identified in the study include digital twins (a virtual representation of a real-world product) and A/B testing (comparing versions to determine which users like them the most), and which are highly data-scalable and are currently having an impact on mainstream design thinking.

What Does This Mean for Indian Design Aspirants and Firms?

1. Data-enhanced methods are not only for the engineers. Storyboarding, annotation, and barebones statistics can open up options in UX, product, or interaction design to every design student or professional.
2. Accepting data does not require an act of abandoning creativity, but it provides more potent information to design everything, bicycles included, and digital products. 
3. As India is quickly becoming digital, these international lessons can provide local designers with a competitive advantage in user centered, evidence-based design; in design schools, startups or established studios. 

To conclude, as an Indian design student or teacher or professional, you do not have to be a hardcore data scientist to utilize data. Begin with basic tools, visualise and annotate key moments, and collaborate across skills and you will find new ways of creatively and effectively solving real-world problems.

To read the full research, refer to this link:: Data-Enhanced Design - K. Gorkovenko et al. (2023).