I used to work with a very wise and experienced designer who referred to this as the "zinc" (after the "sacrificial protection" used on the hulls of ships)
“Just remove the duck” (2013)
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Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#12Battle Chess was a great game. I believe I recall the rook eating the queen as well.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#13NPR had a story about this in graphic design where it has the term "Hairy Arms": http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/364760847/whats-with-all-of-th...
I've heard about this before. The person who was telling me about it said that in almost all cases the C-level person they were dealing with would choose the "hairy arm". Had an unintended way of backfiring frequently.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#14Similarly, always give options, subtly worse than the one you want to see picked. See Dan Ariely's books.
Bernard Woolley: What if he demands options? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, it's obvious, Bernard. The Foreign Office will happily present him with three options, two of which are, on close inspection, exactly the same. Sir Richard Wharton: Plus a third which is totally unacceptable. Sir Humphrey Appleby: Like bombing Warsaw or invading France. Yes, Minister - A Victory For Democracy
But you have to be very careful not to overestimate the person, and end up having him command you to invade France. Giving an artificial bad option can be a great move, but it's dangerous.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#15Battle Chess was a great game. I believe I recall the rook eating the queen as well.
Yes, only the queen, the others get boxed on the head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iS...
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#16Dilbert has this covered: http://dilbert.com/strip/2007-02-02
Reminds me of an application that models program states, looking for deadlocks and stuff. The program had a button which made the entire monitor go black until you pressed a key or something. No value or connection to the programs purpose whatsoever. I guess the author added it as an experiment.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#17Similarly, always give options, subtly worse than the one you want to see picked. See Dan Ariely's books.
Could backfire. I knew someone that presented a bunch of options to a PM with very clear worse options. PM ended up picking the three worst ones.
Then you simply complement him on how "courageous" his decision is.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#18NPR had a story about this in graphic design where it has the term "Hairy Arms": http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/364760847/whats-with-all-of-th...
I've heard about this before. The person who was telling me about it said that in almost all cases the C-level person they were dealing with would choose the "hairy arm". Had an unintended way of backfiring frequently.
The "hairy arm" in this case isn't an alternate version, it's an obvious error added to the design so that the manager can tell you to remove it.
Though I've definitely also heard of people making a deliberately terrible alternate design and having a client pick it.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#19There was a similar story, that I can't now find a source for, of an advertising company that regularly added a 'helicopter' into their customer quotes for video shots. As well as being superfluous it was massively expensive. So the customers say 'we don't need a helicopter', strike that out and feel good that they've done their cost cutting. The rest of the plan makes it through unscathed.
Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)
#20I worked at a deli during college, and people did this same type of thing on slices. By default, I'd always pick a pretty thin slice. Most people really like thinly sliced meats. The first thing you do is slice once and show them the slice, making sure it fits what they wanted. 99% of the time, people would say "thinner," I would pretend to fiddle with the knob, slice the same thickness, and they'd say "perfect!"
I think it gives them some sort of feeling of control and ownership over what is happening.