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Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

uxmag.com

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Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#11

Post by innovate »

hluska wrote: post #10

I 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 wit…

this team at Caltech is doing interesting research along these lines: http://www.rnl.caltech.edu/research/index.html

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#12

Post by duopixel »

drpancake wrote: post #5

Polarising 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.

I'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.

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#13

Post by hluska »

innovate wrote: post #11
hluska wrote: post #10

I 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 wit…

this team at Caltech is doing interesting research along these lines: http://www.rnl.caltech.edu/research/index.html

Thanks so much for that link - I owe you!

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#15

Post by artmageddon »

dominictarr wrote: post #4

leaves on the dashboard encourage more eco-friendly driving? do they wilt when you accelerate too hard?

There'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.

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#16

Post by falcolas »

dominictarr wrote: post #4

leaves on the dashboard encourage more eco-friendly driving? do they wilt when you accelerate too hard?

In 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.

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#17

Post by headbiznatch »

drpancake wrote: post #5

Polarising 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.

In my experience, the best designers bristle at the notion that they "just get on with it". They consider being learned in design a great badge of honor, as important as their innate sense of style. To them, the worst design transgression is harboring any strong artistic opinion without being well-read, theory included.

Loosely related thought: My favorite magic vs. method treatise is Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition". How seriously he hoped to be taken and how ingenuous his motivations are fun to debate, but I love the piece.

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#18

Post by lupatus »

falcolas wrote: post #16
dominictarr wrote: post #4

leaves on the dashboard encourage more eco-friendly driving? do they wilt when you accelerate too hard?

In 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.

That color scheme may backfire though...

Seeing the color red increases testosterone production in men, which might then in turn increase the aggressive driving behavior.

Re: Why Persuasive Design Should Be Your Next Skill Set

#19

Post by martian »

drpancake wrote: post #5

Polarising 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.

It's important to design, but also important to explain and defend your designs.

The sort of ideas expressed in this article help set the stage for subtle design decisions.

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