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Psychology, UX & the dark arts

YOU LOVE MRJOE

@mrjoe

@mrjoe

Hello, I’m @mrjoe, but you can call me Joe

@reply me on Twitter if you enjoyed the prezzo.

@mrjoe

What won’t be in this workshop...

@mrjoe

YOU LOVE MRJOE

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It started with a book...

it started with a book, I found this book on my Mum’s bookshelf, she’s a psychologist, explains a lot. I found this book at 15, finally I thought, a use for psychology.

6YOU LOVE MRJOE

I went on to study Neuroscience then HCI at university.

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...and another book

This one was lent to me by Richard Caddick just after I started working at cx 6 years ago. Why we buy. Great at explaining well, why people buy stuff and the psychology behind it.

http://short.cx/OLBYQc

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Subliminal messaging James Vicary claimed to have introduced subliminal messages with big advertisement effects in 1957 “Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" created an 18.1% increase in Coke sales and a 57.8% increase in popcorn sales

Well no, it was faked. Subliminal messaging isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: http://www.badabingrecords.com/2011/03/the-subliminal-scares-a-short-history-of-an-american-obsession/http://www.businessinsider.com/subliminal-ads-2011-5?op=1

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Not very subliminal & not very effective.

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Can’t carry on without talking about Harry Brignell’s work on Dark Patterns

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This is the Ryanair example. [see my blog post on where I did the exact opposite for Trainline]

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@mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts

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1. Don’t trick2. Don’t cheat3. Don’t lie4. Provide positive benefit

We need some rules. Especially point 4. Always be NICE!

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This good looking chap is Garth Knight. Anyone remember Michael Knight from Knight Rider?Garth was his evil twin.

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Evil Spock too!Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour.

@mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts

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1. Don’t trick2. Don’t cheat3. Don’t lie4. Provide positive benefit5. ALWAYS WEAR A GOATEE

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Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners

By SARAH KERSHAWNew York Times.

December 22, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html

This is a great article about how to help people order food and feel comfortable about what they’ve ordered.

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Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &

Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

An example menu

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Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &

Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

This is called an ‘Enhancer’

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Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &

Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

Cut out numbers and £ symbols = “Hello, you are about to spend money!”

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Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &

Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

Decoys = they may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other dishes look more reasonably priced. research shows that diners tend to order neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middleSometime called PRICE FRAMING

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Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &

Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

More enhancers - sensory labels. vivid adjectives

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Add to wishlist_______________

Colour: black 6 in stock

Or pay £91 a month over 36 months 19.9% APR

£629.99

£5__. __Save 22% £14.12

£610.99John': your price

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________________

£___.__ £___.__

You say: We say:

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Features:

Uncle Joey's eatery Pan fried Sea Bream 15.

Uncle Joey's Burger 9.Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon & Farm

Fresh Eggs 8.50.Spaghe!i Carbonara 7.

Cognitive biaseshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

@mrjoe made this

UX, Psychology & the 'dark arts'

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http://blog.emurse.com/2007/02/08/complete-list-of-english-power-words/

Power Words

I ❤ @mrjoe

I ❤ @mrjoe

The exercise sheet. See the blog post for more details.

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Q. How do we test this stuff?

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A B)

A|B or multi-variant testing is great for this. User testing less so

Learn from your spam folder

26http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/word-usage-spam

Symantec investigated the word composition of global spam for a 1 week period. Word that encourage an immediate reaction, add emotion. 5 of the top 6 words have an exclamation mark. These are called POWER WORDS.

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Social proof is a type of conformity. When a person is in a situation where they are unsure of the correct way to behave, they will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behavior. When "we conform because we believe that other's interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action,"

The lime in Corona. Where did it come from ?1. An ancient aztec fertility ritual 2. Introduced by Spanish colonists in drinking water to act as a anti-bacterial3. A result of a bet between 2 barmen in NYC in 1981 to see if he could get patrons to copy him by putting a lime in the neck of the bottle

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delicious.com/mrjoe/uxcogpsy

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We need to be careful how we used this stuff. Use it for good, don’t forget the code we talked about. This stuff should be used to make people feel comfortable about what they are doing, not by tricking them into something.

@mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts

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1. Don’t trick2. Don’t cheat3. Don’t lie4. Provide positive benefit

We need some rules. Especially point 4. Always be NICE!

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Thank you.I’m @mrjoe on twitter

I (we) write at cxpartners.co.uk/blog