Erin Smith — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:04:11 GMT

Your description of the emblematic as a “visible symbol of something abstract” reminds me of the way that after a project, I’ve often applied conversion/abandon data to the user experience maps to show clients the ROI on a project. Beside the paths and blocks on the user maps, I notate the goals and the actuals for clickthroughs to that particular path, as well as the cumulative total of clickthroughs to the other alternative (abandons, search bar, global nav).

It’s a great way of visually demonstrating ROI. Sometimes, we see that a little change upstream creates a big impact… other times, we invest a lot of resources in something that,w ith step-by-step drop-offs, creates little impact.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Erin Smith