Presented on 12 June, 2009 at Design for Conversion, Amsterdam.

2. INTERFACE MAGIC
Hannah Donovan 12 June 2009

3. WHAT IS
“CONVERSION”?

4. WHAT IS “MAGIC”?

5. ★ An unconventional delightful quality
(i.e. the magic of the theatre)
★ Mysterious tricks (such as making
things appear and disappear).

6. ★ Oooh! How did it know?
★ Wow, that’s so cool, it just…worked

7. ★ Huh...what just happened?
★ WTF! Why did it just do that for me?
★ This is so paperclippy! Gah!

8. Magic can be used for evil and awesome

9. When you use magic for awesome,
it’s an experience users will come
back for.

11. Good experiences convert.
Magical experiences convert better.

12. GOOD
EXPERIENCES

13. “Customers online don’t respond to a
brand marketed to them, they respond
to the experience they have. If they can
accomplish their goal quickly and easily,
they return to the site, and tell their
friends. It’s that simple.”
— Mark Hurst

14. MAGICAL
EXPERIENCES

15. …ARE RISKIER

16. SECRET INGREDIENT:
EXPECTATION

17. MAGIC POTION
INGREDIENTS:
★ A handful of expected
★ A pinch of unexpected
DIRECTIONS:
★ Mix until ratios are right (for your user)
★ Test and try again

18. EXPECTATION

19. EXPECTATION PERCEPTION

20. BAD MAGIC

21. CASE STUDY:
OLD LAST.FM SIGN UP

24. CASE STUDY:
TWITTER SIGN UP

26. CASE STUDY:
WEBSITE X

28. SUMMARY
★ The magic should work quickly
★ Don’t get too clever. Let people learn on
their own. It’s satisfying.
★ Ifthe functionality exists, expose it . No
behind the scenes auto-magical whizbang.
★ Stick to the vernacular, don’t make people
learn the names of your spells.

29. GOOD MAGIC

30. CASE STUDY:
NEW LAST.FM SIGNUP

35. CASE STUDY:
FACEBOOK

37. CASE STUDY:
HYPEM.COM

39. SUMMARY
★ Expose magic early,
★ Expose the functionality. Show the user how
things happen.
★ Always have empathy. Keep in mind what they
want, write use cases and let that guide your
decisions.
★ Foster serendipitous moments

40. MAKING MAGIC

41. ★ Comes after creating a good experience
★ Is built on understanding what your users
want (empathy)
★ Is risky
★ Relies on a precise ratio of the expected to
the unexpected.
★ Has an element of delightful surprise

42. ★ Shouldn’t get to clever; expose functionality
★ Should let the user learn on their own
★ Should happen quickly
★ Should use “plain English” or Dutch ;-)

43. THANKS!
hannah@last.fm @Han (twitter)