Neuro Web Design & Look Feel
Science Behind the Designer’s Gut
I’ve been intrigued with the brain scans of people making decisions, as well as the scans of creative writers, musicians and artists. Brains on fire. At our recent Future of Web User Experience discussion at Weymouth Design on October 6th, Bill Albert, who runs the Design and Usability Center at Bentley University, noted a future trend of “persuasive technology” for web design, which tied right to my scan fever. He mentioned a recent book, by Susan Weinschenk, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? (New Riders Press, 2009) I had to wait a few days for my local book store to get it. (I think a brain scan of deciding to go local for this or just go to amazon.com would be interesting in its own right.) At any rate, the book delivered on its premise, and explained the unconscious reasons behind decisions to click – or not.
It’s not all conscious
Well yes, of course we knew that, or think we did. Dr. Weinschenk points out studies that demonstrate the power of the unconscious in decision making and how the best web sites speak to different parts of the brain – in a simplified terms, the “old brain” of survival, the “mid-brain” that processes emotion and the “new brain” that deals with language processing, speech, reading, planning, etc.
One unconscious process of particular note: our need for social validation. Customer ratings, customer reviews, and polling are means of social validation, along with all the social media frenzy. People want to connect, want to belong. Different types of customer reviews work better than others in terms of persuasion, which was interesting.
Weinschenk discussed the drivers behind reciprocity and concession, and how we are impacted by any implication of scarcity. All of these can drive digital and e-marketing strategy and design and “flow” of websites. The effect of order on choice was also interesting, and is important for e-commerce strategies and product placement.
More is less
One thing we all encounter – the desire and pressure to provide more choices, more options, more content on a website homepage, in a marketing campaign, in a video series. There is a famous “jam experiment” referenced in Neuro Web Design that compares the results of having 24 jam choices versus 6 jam choices. (Iyengar, Shena S. and Mark R. Lepper 2000. When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 79:995-1006).
With 24 jams on display, 60% of the people stopped and tasted one or two types of jam; with 6 on display, 40% of the people stopped and tasted on or two types of jam. But – with the 24 jams – only 3% purchased. With 6 jams, 30% purchased. More choice means more indecision. Fascinating.
The power of stories and visual branding
Stories make people click. Images make people click. Story-telling is in our DNA, and affects people at the cognitive and pre-cognitive levels. Stories that are told light up the visual and auditory parts of the brain as we imagine characters and events. They also can effectively light up the emotional part of the brain. One of the implications that I took away: The incredible volume of story-telling video content being added to the web has neuro drivers.
Weinshchenk also notes the power of imagery: “Research from the 1960 to the present (Brady 2008) confirms that human memory for visual information is vast. People can remember more than 2500 pictures with 90 percent accuracy… (and a year later with) 63 percent accuracy…This is in contrast to information that we read or hear. We remember only 10 percent of what we read or hear (without pictures).”
Persuasive Technology
Along with the work of Susan Weinshenk, Bill Albert noted the Persuasive Techology Lab at Stanford University. I had the good fortune to hear the head of that lab, BJ Fogg, speak at a recent Connected to Health Symposium in Boston. Another one of the keynoters was Sheena Iyengar from Columbia Business School (and the jam study) who spoke on The Art of Choosing.
One of our talented interactive designers is really curious about all of these motivations and wants to get his hands on Susan Weinschenk’s book. He designs naturally (and unconsciously) in a way that affects people on multiple levels, and makes them click, which is what all designers and writers strive to do. We all can get better at this. And websites and apps and mobile sites can be more effective, and will be more effective, leveraging persuasive technology.
And, choosing well, I’m walking the book downstairs to that designer now.
