Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Stories of People Trying to Use Numbers to Describe Things that Should Not Be Quantified
In “Numbers” a recent episode of “This American Life” by WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International, the host Ira Glass, covers five stories of people attempting to quantify things that shouldn’t be quantified. The show reminded me of the struggles that I’ve faced over the years in trying to quantify many of the components, emotional attributes and ROI derived from my work in the User Experience space. I’m sure many of you will relate.

Prologue. When she began working as a temp secretary in San Francisco, learning the computers, wasting time, Andrea put together a graph with Microsoft Excel. Its title: My Love Life: A Ten Year Span. Act One. Corporate Culture. D. Travers Scott and his boyfriend spent six months gathering data on their own relationship, and put together a report on it in the form of a corporate annual report. Their goal: to describe the most emotional parts of life using the least emotional possible format. Act Two. Paint by Numbers. Alex Melamid and Vitaly Komar hired a polling firm to investigate what people want to see in paintings. Then, using the data, they painted what people want. Act Three. When Days are Numbered. Jerry Davidson has been keeping a list of everything he’s done since 1955, when he was ten years old. Act Four. The Salesman. Will Powers — his real name — decided to try to use all the tools of modern brand marketing to sell himself to his own wife.

Normally I wouldn’t recommend listening to an hour of streaming media, but this show is definitely worth it! Check it out here…