A variety of disinformation

The other day (well, actually some weeks ago while relaxing at the beach in Kos) I read ‘Neuro Web Design - What makes them click?’ by Susan Weinschenk. (http://neurowebbook.com)

The book is a fast and easy read (no unnecessary filler) and a good introduction on how your site’s visitors can be steered in the direction you want them to go.

The Obvious

The book handles some of the more known/proven techniques, like for example that ratings/testimonials of other people can help sell your product or service. Another well known technique it talks about is inducing a sense of scarcity/urgency in the visitor. Only 2 seats left! Buy now and get 33% off! It’s not because these are known techniques that they stop working.

Luckily 2/3rd of the book handles less obvious techniques, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth buying.

The Not So Obvious

A less known influencing technique is reciprocity. And then I’m not talking about swapping links with another website, but the fact that someone is more likely to do something for you after you did something for them first. The book cites some studies (I always love the facts and figures) and gives some actual examples of how to implement this in your site’s design, which is less obvious when you think about it. Want to know more ? Buy the book!

Other interesting sources

For a more general introduction to the same principles, I’d suggest ‘Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion’. ‘Yes!…’ cites some of the same studies (it seems there’s a rather limited pool of studies covering this subject), but of course doesn’t show how to implement these techniques in your site’s design. I read ‘Yes!…’ last year, making ‘Neuro Web Design’ just a little bit less interesting.

!!!Always make sure you’re able to measure your changes. If you haven’t yet, check out the advanced segmentation in Google Analytics (don’t be afraid because it says ‘beta’, it works just fine) and Google Website Optimizer.

Worth Buying?

Can I recommend it ? Sure, why not. I think it can be useful for anyone who ever had to think about the design or content of a site. You don’t have to be a marketing guy to want a site you’re involved with to be successful. The content/filler ratio is excellent too: you don’t need to wade through dozens of pages to filter out the interesting bits. (unlike ‘The Design of Sites’, which contains too much useless info and because it’s in dead-tree format, you can’t google it)

If you like it, you might also check out ‘Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion’.

Tip for people living in Europe: check Amazon UK for your book buying needs. Because of the low UK Pound exchange rate, it’s usually considerably cheaper and faster to get a book delivered to your doorstep by Amazon UK compared to having to order it at the local book store or web-shop.

I’ve had a special interest in GUI design, usability, hci, … for quite some time.

The last few years, when I started working on a new feature I tried to forget everything I know about programming and fully concentrate on the user interface first: who will use it, how should it integrate into their workflow, how often will they use it, etc. Just ban any data model or database thoughts, pick up pen and paper and draw the user interface.

As a programmer you tend to focus on the data first. This is the way we fit the problem into our programmer’s mind, this is also the part that might contain pitfalls and when you ’solved’ it you’re usually pretty sure that it’s solved in a good (enough) manner (development = left side o/t brain?).

The user interface on the other hand is usually an afterthought: you know you can do it, there’s no challenge here and it gets rushed together because there’s a deadline you need to consider. For most developers, there’s also a lack of that reassuring feeling that you’re on the right track or a big sense of accomplishment when it’s finished (UI design = more right side o/t brain?).

This is obviously not the right way to go about this: for the user, the user interface IS the program. It’s all he or she sees, and even if it doesn’t look like a rushed afterthought, it often feels like one. Most UI’s still are just a way to interact with the data instead of being a handy, useful tool. They are an interface between the keyboard, mouse, monitor and data instead of being an interface between the user and the task.

Although I’m a firm believer in ‘paper prototyping’ and designing the UI with a clear mind away from the machine, I also often miss digital tools like copy/paste and being able to email my mock-up to someone right away. (but still tend to stick to pen and paper, and not only because it’s got a better carbon footprint

However… these 2 quite recent tools could fill that gap:

• Balsamiq Mockups not free but I guess you can’t afford not to buy it when working in a pro team
• The Pencil Project which comes as a Firefox plugin and is totally free

So far, no-one I mentioned these to had heard about them. Maybe I talk to the wrong people.

Balsamiq Mockups keeps the sketchy feeling by for example not using 100% straight lines. This might seem a bit backwards but it keeps you from trying to make your design pixel-perfect and gives the impression that your design is still very open to change and suggestions from others. Although it doesn’t feel right in a programmer’s mind, it is ideal in this GUI-prototyping context.

Do I hear someone say ‘Visio’ ? It’s probably just me but the few times I tried it took me ages to design a GUI with Visio. I’ve seen my share of Visio UI mockups, and I often got the impression that they were made by people who only use MS Office products and design an interface to the data instead of a User Interface. Doesn’t mean Visio is bad though, I guess I’m just Pavloved not to like it.

Enjoy!