Webdagene , Oslo, October 2014
Joe Leech @mrjoe Psychology and the perfect design

Hello, I’m @mrjoe but you
can call me Joe. I’ve been doing UX for 10 years I work for cxpartners a UX agency and I work with people like Disney, Marriott & theTrainline. I studied Neuroscience, which was really hard.MSc Human Communication and computing, more on that later.

£5.3 billion goes through the
stuff I designed every year. (scary).

PsychologyForDesigners.com

I want to talk about
the perfect design. Here is what you get if you type perfect design into Google image search. Not what I’d call the perfect design ‘perfect design’

#p4d @mrjoe Today I’m going
to talk to you about the brain. Specifically three parts of it and how if we talk to each we can create the perfect design.

anybody recognise this city? I
want to tell you a story about Buenos Aires. I have been twice.

This is the machine. it
ate my card.

The second time it happened.
I also took a photo. What I didn’t realise until I was putting this talk together. It’s same damn ATM! I thought, how can I use psychology to understand why this happened and to stop it happening again.

Get Cash Enter Card Remove
Card Enter PIN Select amount This is order of steps for an ATM in the UK.

Get Cash This is the
thing we start with in our head. One this is done the task is over.

Get Cash Enter Card Remove
Card Enter PIN Select amount Here’s the flow for an ATM in Argentina.

Get Cash Enter Card Remove
Card Enter PIN Select amount Enter Card Remove Card Get Cash Enter PIN Select amount Compared to a UK one, see the problem. The Goal State is reached before the end of the process. Therefore my brain tells me that we have reached the end, I can leave now, and I do but without my card.

We build Mental Models of
how the world works and apply them to new situations

Enter Card Remove Card Get
Cash Enter PIN Select amount Enter Card Remove Card Get Cash Enter PIN Select amount Enter Card Remove Card Get Cash Enter PIN Select amount Enter Card Remove Card Get Cash Enter PIN Select amount ATMS work differently across the world. But notice the commonality. The Goal State is at the end of the process. Meaning bad errors are avoided, it does make the the process different and we can’t use the ATM on autopilot

Cruising. So how does this
relate to digital design I hear you ask. We don’t design ATMs.

I worked for Saga holiday,
vacations for the over 60s. In this case ocean cruising.

This was the online flow
SAGA had before we started.

We did some research and
watched how these people would book a cruise holiday. (and yes that is a wig, but not the actual people we spoke to)

We spent a few days
listening to calls and customer service issues.

We spent time trying understand
the order of steps, and information needed at each each step to reach the Goal State

Remember that line at the
top, how the website worked. Well after the research we talked to SAGA about how it did work, and…

This was how people were
using the current website. Jumping backwards and forwards, and almost always having to pick up the phone to ask a question, the result, very few online bookings. Web analytics might spot this..

The next bit was the
easy bit. We took what we new and showed each step and the information required to move to the next step. Easy if you have done the research, if you have the data. Web analytics will never give you this.

#p4d @mrjoe Thinking (cognition) This
is the part of the brain we use when we think. The Cerebral cortex. Used for thinking, learning, processing

There is no expedient to
which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking. Thomas Edison #p4d @mrjoe 27 Or people are fundamentally lazy.

#p4d @mrjoe the brain uses
20% of total energy

£43,654 transaction the largest transaction
through something I’ve designed (scary). The result…

The perfect design 1. Match
the mental model.

This paper, from 2000. ATM
experiment. The same interaction, two scenarios. One plain green text on black screen. One with a layer of design. The designed version was perceived as being easier to use.

This is beautiful one believe
it or not (it’s in Hebrew)

Another project I’ve worked on
for Ritz Carlton. What an image.

beauty
evokes
emotion

Watch the sun setting beyond
the Indian Ocean from the comfort of your own roof top balcony

words
evoke
emotion

#p4d @mrjoe Thinking (cognition) Emotion
This is the amygdala part of the Limbic System, it controls Emotion It has deeper more profound effect on us. It’s connections and hormones permeate throughout the brain, having an effect on everything we are doing. Emotion effects everything we do, both positive and negative.

The perfect design 1. Match
the mental model 2. Evoke emotion

#p4d @mrjoe Thinking (cognition) Emotion
Instinct Instinct: The Hypothalamus & Brain stem. They control: Breathing, eating, sleeping, heart rate, sexual arousal = Instinct, we are unaware of it

Let me tell you a
story, recognise this movie? I was good at computers, kids at school, the Johnson Gang, asked me to help them hack ATMs. Needless to say, I was useless at it. #p4d @mrjoe

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/17/ article-2145759-1321F42E000005DC-318_634x5 31.jpg #p4d @mrjoe
Here’s what happened. They couldn’t hack the ATM so they just stole it.

#p4d @mrjoe Thinking (cognition) Emotion
Fusiform Gyrus Instinct

A study, if you want
to know how to read an academic paper, buy my book. h#tpt4pd: /@/mwrwjowe .sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X07000116

So what did the paper
show? h#tpt4pd: /@/mwrwjowe .sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X07000116

#p4d @mrjoe Men spent more
time, and had a higher probability of, looking at female faces.

#p4d @mrjoe had more first
looks towards, spent more time, & had a higher probability of, looking at Women genitals.

#p4d @mrjoe

#p4d @mrjoe Thinking (cognition) Emotion
Instinct Here’s the thing. Designing for the instinctual part of the brain is almost impossible. Adding pictures of faces, genitals or anything to try to nudge or persuade is not going to get you very far.

Do steps one and two
and you’ll have a great design. As for persuasive design, nudging, gamification and other trickery, let me call bullshit on that. If you have to use those theories to sell an average product. You’ll be better improving the product that trying to trick. You might get tiny incremental improvements but it won’t get you a perfect design. The perfect design 1. Match the mental model. 2. Evoke emotion. 3. Ummm...

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PsychologyForDesigners.com