Data Analyst

A data analyst is professionally trained in organizing, understanding, and creating actionable insights from large amounts of data. While sites like Google Analytics provide us with a large amount of data, the caveats to each type of data, context the data needs to be interpreted in, and the connections between business cycles and patterns in the data can make it easy to misread and misinterpret the meaning and actions you should take based on a set of data. Data analysts are experts in not only dispersing this wealth of information in an easy-to-digest format but also in ensuring that the interpretation and insights that come from this information are fair, balanced, and unbiased.

Data analysis and user research go hand in hand to explore questions from different angles. User research explores problems from both a qualitative as well as quantitative standpoint, and it examines what a user wants and believes to be the solution to a problem, as well as examines how a user might respond to or use a proposed solution. Data analysis looks at a history of existing tools and behaviors and shows you their actual usage over time, completely outside the lens of wants, needs, or beliefs. Both types of research have overlap and can provide important context to each other to reveal a better understanding of a problem as a whole.

Because data analysis relies on historical data, the best time to contact a data analyst is the minute you know you need one. They can help you get the infrastructure in place to start measuring for the questions you want to answer quickly and efficiently. If you are interested in data analysis, contact your Interactive Design account executive.

Source: Data Analyst on Techopedia