Journal / Systems
02Systems
On estimated numbers in case studies
Why some results in my work carry a “≈”, and the difference between a measured number and an estimated one.
Mohammed Al-BishariPublished 2026/08/121 min readPlaceholder
Preview: the essays here are placeholders until the real ones are published.
In many enterprise projects the designer has no access to analytics after launch. That leaves two choices: leave results blank, or estimate them honestly and say they are estimates.
I chose the second, provided it is clear to the reader. That is why a “≈” precedes every number that wasn't measured directly.1
An honest number marked as an estimate beats a precise one you can't defend.
01Where an estimate comes from
From a before-and-after test on a small sample, from the steps that disappeared from a flow, or from the support team's notes. Not from intuition alone.