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Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set
- arkitaip 15y agoTwo great research oriented books on the topic of persuasion and behavior modification are "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" and "White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts". Highly recommend them for people looking for more than opinions over overviews. http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Business-Essentials/dp/006124189X/ http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine... http://www.amazon.com/White-Bears-Other-Unwanted-Thoughts/dp/0898622239/ http://www.amazon.com/White-Bears-Other-Unwanted-Thoughts/dp...
- lotusleaf1987 15y agoI recommend the first link, it was really enlightening to read and after I read it it illuminating a lot of marketing/sales techniques I didn't even see operating.
- hluska 15y agoI would give anything to get access to an fMRI and show participants these 'examples of persuasive design' while they are hooked up to it. Much of the literature on persuasive design suggests that the persuasion happens in the cerebral cortex. Neuroscience has shown that persuasion happens a whole lot deeper, in some very primitive parts of our brains. I'd love to see how brains 'light up' when they're confronted with some of these designs! If anyone has any resources on fMRI research into persuasive design, I'd be the happiest geek alive.
- innovate 15y agothis team at Caltech is doing interesting research along these lines: http://www.rnl.caltech.edu/research/index.html http://www.rnl.caltech.edu/research/index.html
- hluska 15y agoThanks so much for that link - I owe you!
- ricardobeat 15y agothere's a field called "neuromarketing" which is based exactly on that kind of research. I think it's bizarre.
- hluska 15y agoThere's an interesting book called "Buyology" which was written by Martin Lindstrom, one of the big proponents of neuromarketing. Definitely worth a read or two!
- dominictarr 15y agoleaves on the dashboard encourage more eco-friendly driving? do they wilt when you accelerate too hard?
- hluska 15y agoI think it plays a scene of Bambi watching his Mom develop emphysema...=)
- artmageddon 15y agoThere's a particular hybrid car out there that actually does have that if you drive outside of "environmentally sound" parameters... i.e. too hard of accelerations or high speeds. The idea is to encourage driving in such a way that maximizes your mileage, thus making the trees happy.
- falcolas 15y agoIn the last hybrid I got a ride in, if you were drawing too heavily on the gas engine, the console backlighting would go from a soothing bluish-green to an angry red. Rather dramatic feedback, but I could feel myself responding to it - and I was a passenger.
- lupatus 15y agoThat color scheme may backfire though... Seeing the color red increases testosterone production in men, which might then in turn increase the aggressive driving behavior.
- nitrogen 15y agoThe first image that would come to my mind is the leaves swirling in my wake as I press the pedal to the floor around a fun corner (observing all proper speed limits and common sense, of course). It seems that some designs are justified by people seeing a design they like, rationalizing it after the fact, and applying their rationalization in a way that is too general, without considering other ways the design could be interpreted.
- drpancake 15y agoPolarising comment alert. I find it so hard to relate to HCI and UX as fields. I mean, do real designers creating great products actually subscribe to this theorising or do they just get on with it? I'm probably completely naive about all of this, but from the outside it looks like a lot of talking and a lack of doing.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ithayer 15y agoI think that's the spirit of the post, that building persuasive systems is moving/has moved into the real world in a principled way. Disclaimer: I work with the author, and it's suprised me how much of a 'science' it really is (hypotheses can be tested, and the results can be measured and improved)
- mikeleeorg 15y agoI find in almost every field, there are those that enjoy theorizing and those that enjoy doing. The HCI & UX fields are no different.
- innovate 15y agoHCI has both theoretical and scientific models that are often driven by cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience.
- duopixel 15y agoI'm a designer and I understand what you mean. There are two different things going on here... 1. Design also has its own "architecture astronauts", people who theorize a lot but don't get things done. They are usually in academia, since there are not many companies willing to pay for design astronauting. 2. Design, despite being more closely related to engineering, is usually expressed from the perspective of art. That's why I think most programmers have problems getting a grasp of it. The reasons are mainly historical, but fortunately people are paying more attention to more rational approaches to design (Tufte, Krug). To me it seems the author is trying to overreach the scope of UX (when it's already huge) with vague ideas of where it should head.
- blueskittle 15y agoAnother example of this in action is the little fly or bee that you see on some urinals. This design element persuades its users to take a desirable action; in this case, to pee more accurately.
- ricardobeat 15y agobuzzword alert!
- tlow 15y agoAm I the only one who thinks BJ Fogg is completely full of it?
- brlewis 15y agoOn the blackberry browser, their "subscribe" and "popular" boxes float over the text and won't go away. This persuaded me to hit the back button. Too bad, since I changed the design of my registration page recently and increased sign-ups. I'm eager to learn more but will have to wait 'til I'm at my desk.