In the quest to do more with less, one method I’ve seen used to get the job done more quickly is to rely on best practices and studies. It’s not that referring to best practices or studies is bad, but they should be the starting point for decisions, not the final word. Why?
Your context is unique
This was made obvious in my dissertation study in which the effect seen by applying best practices or not depended on what was being measured (i.e. what mattered). In the API reference topics I studied, whether using headings and design elements as suggested by the prevailing best practices or not made no difference in reading performance, but they made a significant difference in how the topics were perceived by the reader.
Those results applied to the context of my experiment and they might apply to other, similar contexts, but you’d have to test them to know for sure. Does it matter? You tell me. That, too, depends on the context.
A study showed…
A report on the effect that design variations had on a news site home page came out recently to show how a modern interface had better engagement than a more traditional, image+text interface. However, reader of the latter interface had better comprehension of the articles presented.
Since it relates design, comprehension, and engagement, I thought it was quite interesting. I skimmed the actual study, which seemed reasonable. I’m preparing myself, however, for what the provocative nature of the headline in the blog article is likely to produce.–the time when it will be used in the inevitable “studies show…” argument. It has all the components of great “studies show” ammo: it refers to modern design (timely), has mixed results (so you can quote the result that suits the argument), it has a catchy headline (so you don’t need to read the article or the report).
Remember, your context is unique
Starting from other studies and “best practices” is great. But, because your context is, invariably, unique, you’ll still need to test and validate.
When it comes to best practices and applying other studies, trust but verify.