Purpose of This Appendix
This appendix records a limited exception to the department’s general refusal of metric-driven publication systems. It applies only to the Visual Research Department website — the interface through which studies, process documents, and field notes are made available.
The measurement described here is directed at the interface itself. It is not applied to the subjects of the studies.
Position Statement
The department treats its own publication surface as an object of observation.
Visitors arrive, move between documents, and depart. Studies are opened, read, or abandoned. These patterns are treated as evidence about whether the archive is functioning — not as evidence about the value of the work it contains.
This is a study of the desk, not of the reader.
Scope of Measurement
Measurement is aggregated and anonymous. No account is required. No persistent identifier is assigned to individual visitors.
What may be recorded:
— pages opened (paths within this site) — approximate referrer (how a visit began) — session sequences (order of pages within a visit) — study navigation events (which study was opened, from where) — approximate dwell time on study desks (time before the tab is hidden or closed)
What is not inferred from this data: identity, location beyond country-level aggregation, or intent.
Exclusions
The following are excluded by design:
— advertising or social pixels — cross-site profiling — sale or transfer of visitor data — tracking of study subjects as individuals — optimisation for reach, frequency, or algorithmic demand
Measurement runs only on public pages after production deploy. It is disabled during local development and on restricted internal routes.
Relation to Appendix A
Appendix A refuses systems that substitute metrics for meaning. That refusal remains in force for the studies themselves and for the department’s outward presence in disposable content channels.
Interface measurement is accepted only where it serves maintenance: identifying broken paths, unreadable entry points, and studies that fail to hold attention once opened.
Counts are not targets. They are field notes about the archive.
Closing Statement
The department observes its own interface with the same restraint it applies elsewhere.
Data is reviewed periodically. Instrumentation may be revised or withdrawn without notice if it ceases to serve the study or begins to distort it.
This appendix should be read as operational transparency, not as invitation to audit performance.