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July 31, 2004
Top Web Behavior #6: Make it your homepage
The BehaviorEvery site wants to be your homepage. After all, if you choose them, you'll see their latest offerings every time you log in. Many sites (such as Yahoo! or MSN) allow you to create a custom page, with links to your favorite sites, news stories that match criteria you choose, and a quick glance at your portfolio (along with myriad other doodads) to use as your homepage. Other sites, like Google, try to rely on their usefulness alone, subtly coaxing you with a link at the bottom of the page to "Make Google Your Homepage!".
What they gain (and you lose)
This, perhaps surprisingly, is one of the less nefarious behaviors we came across. When you make a site your homepage, you increase their traffic, and you're probably more likely to use their services. But you're making the site your homepage because you like it, so the trade is mutually beneficial. Beyond that, there's not much of a hidden gain on the part of the site, at least that we can see. (Written by Adam Wright)
Gallery
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CNN.com
Google.com
MSN.com
Yahoo.com
(Compiled by Joshua Ainslie)Posted by Joshua Ainslie at 01:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Every morning this week
Every morning this week I've been playing Dance Dance Revolution, a video game that runs on PS2. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-29-ex-couch-potatoes_x.htm If you haven't tapped into the DDR buzz, you need to put it on your radar screen. This game is a landmark, and in some ways a turning point, away from high-cost and toward active games. . , you need to each morning. This video game, built for the PS2, is a landmark in persuasive technology. I've played it before, but I finally had to buy the game for our lab's research. Seriously. I could write a book (or at least a long article) using DDR to explain what makes persuasive technologies work. But there are two angles here: one is psychological, the other is practical. all those practical business issues. It's hard to remember all the companies that have approached me with products that seemed great but without a realistic plan for the marketplace. DDR is opening the door to a new breed of affordable and fun computing experiences that motivate physical activity. This category will likely explode with the increased concerns about couch potatoes and obesity. It's the first widely adopted affordable computing experience that motivates physical activity.Keys to success -- not so much the design but the economics. DDR is affordable. Unlike other efforts to motivate physical activity (MIT's), DDR Home use, affordable. positive reinforcement (applause, praise)
negative reinforcement (boo, criticism)
modeling (beginner mode)
challenge
competition
recognition
incentive (unlock features)
With a yellow notebook in my hand taking notes. Lessons/ training -- gradually gets harder. Teachers you basic moves you'll need in the games. It's really not as hard as it seems once you realize there are some common steps.
Posted by at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2004
E-mail Scams
As seen on Slashdot, a study found that fake e-mails asking for personal information fool users 28% of the time. These scams, called "phishing," usually take the form of a Bank or web commerce site asking you to confirm your account information, sometimes including your password, credit card numbers, and other such sensitive information. In the past, these e-mails were easy to spot: unprofessional-looking, typos everywhere, etc. But now, the phishers have gotten smarter, so we need to be on the lookout. Can you spot a phisher's e-mail? The publishers of the test set up a web page to test surfers' ability to spot the fakes. I'll admit it, I didn't score 100% on the test. In my defense, though, I wouldn't have been persuaded into giving up my account information. I'm extremely careful about giving a webpage that sort of information, since I know how insecure these pages can be. The test also took away my first two lines of defense: First, I always check to see where the links go. Even though they claim to be a CitiBank link, if the page goes off to a suspicious web page (or the link is a button so I can't see where goes), I'm on the alert. In fact, many companies, in light of these phisher techniques, will not include links in their e-mails now -- instead, their e-mails just contain instructions on how to update your account from their web page. Second, there were no e-mail headers. I use these to check out just who the e-mail is actually coming from. Even though the "from" field may say "security@ebay.com," the headers will let you know if the e-mail is really coming from somewhere illegitimate. So, in conclusion, be wary! As persuasive as these e-mails are, maintaining some suspicion will do you well.Posted by at 04:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 28, 2004
Timing and persuasion
Yet another great example of persuasion by Amazon (I swear, I'm not an employee). I wrote before about the importance of timing in persuasion. Now the designers of 37signals have identified an example of what they call Defensive/Contingency design: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000742.phpPosted by at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Extracting your personal info -- why people should care
Virtually all leading websites are designed to manipulate your behavior. These sites succeed when they get you to perform target behaviors, such as typing in your email address or signing up for an account. As we share our lab's findings about "Top Target Behaviors" (including in this blog), we find some people just shrug it off, unconcerned that persuasive technology is extracting their personal information little by little. "What's the big deal?," they say. Now there's a fun way to answer this question. An online dramatization shows how someday your personal information could be used against you. The premise: A man calls to order pizza. The woman taking the order has access to his current location, his health records, his work address . . . --BJ FoggPosted by at 12:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2004
Top Web Behavior #7: Agree to get a newsletter
The BehaviorAlmost every top site has a monthly (or weekly, or even daily!) newsletter that you can subscribe to. Online stores use their newsletters to advertise products and announce sales. Content providers send out previews of their articles in the hope that you'll log in to read the rest. And most sites are careful to reassure you through choice: why not sign up for the newsletter; after all, you can always unsubscribe later.
What they gain (and you lose)
First, the obvious: when you sign up for a newsletter, sites now get to contact you about everything from new features to promotions. But just as important, they gain mindshare. Every time they send you a newsletter (whether you read it or not), you're thinking about their site. With any luck (for them) it will stick, and when you're looking for what they're selling (or maybe just providing), you'll consider them.
One thing that surprised us is that most sites we looked at won't send you outside offers (or sell your email address) just because you signed up for their newsletter. The value they get from sending you a newsletter is enough that they don't want to risk you turning it down. Instead, they usually employ a separate checkbox for outside offers.
(Written by Adam Wright) Gallery
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Amazon.com
CNN.com
Go.com
MSN.com
NYTimes.com
Webshots.com
(Compiled by Joshua Ainslie)
Posted by Joshua Ainslie at 03:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 22, 2004
GAPMINDER - Persuasive Visualizations?
Gapminder is a non-profit that develops and provides free software to visualize"human development." According to the website their vision is to: Making sense of the world by having fun with statistics! I was fortunate to hear a talk and view a demo by them at Stanford some time back, and was very impressed with their work. I think there is a great need for data to be accessible in simplified and visual from, and Gapminder is doing a great job at that. Moreover, they work together with Lund University, UNDP and WHO, which lends them a lot of credibility.
Posted by Aditya Johri at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 20, 2004
Text Messages Tapping Voters
"Get it on the Go" is MTV's catch phrase for their new voter outreach program. At their Rock the Vote site, you can sign up to receive text messages that will provide information about the upcoming US election and will even remind subscribers to vote on election day. In a San Jose Mercury News article on 7/19/04, Lori Aritani reported on the rise in use of mobile technology for political participation. She notes that recently nearly 200,000 people in South Africa registered to vote via text messaging. On one hand, this seems like it could be a great way to get access to information quickly and to keep on top of civic responsibilities. On the other hand, it's also an open invitation for MTV and others to take advantage of nearly constant access to subscribers, given the attachment most people have to their mobile phones...Posted by Angela Booker at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 14, 2004
Penpals in prison -- persuasion or manipulation?
I just got off the phone with a reporter doing a story on the growing trend of women emailing prison inmates. I'm not an expert on this genre of website, but understanding psychology helps shed light on why people do this.The names of some of the sites . . . seeking lo Talked with a reporter doing a story on the growing trend of women writing inmates. She was concerned that the inmates and the sites don't tell the whole story, such as the child molester who talks about making a few mistakes but how he seeks someone to build his world around, etc. 1. Understand the psychological drive for intimate relationships2. Understand how people think (or don't think)People don't think rationally about the outcome, much like the lottery. 3. Understand the power of hopeP email penpals in prison Baumeister -- do whatever it takes to have one initiate relationshipText strips out other social cues (voice, appearance). People then see what they want to see -- construal. Feeds off of hope, a powerful motivator. Inmates know how to push the right buttons.The sites know how to make it seem possible -- testimonials and stories. Not so different from the psychology of lottery -- people ignore the odds, pay attention to stories. They do this for hope -- something to help feel better. Hope is the underlying driver. Hope is the basis for religion. It's the same thing as lottery -- people doPosted by at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
Can you hear me now?
There's been something bothering me lately. Whenever someone on a cell phone mutters the words, "Can you hear me now?," the next thing I expect the person to say is "Good." Then I am unable to avoid thinking about the Verizon ad about the nerdy technician who travels the world testing out phone networks. Does anyone else experience this as well? I'm sure it's been sitting in my subconscious for quite some time, but it really boiled over this week when I heard it 4 times. I realized that the ad really sticks because Verizon was clever enough to subvert a common phrase that you might overhear and use it as a trigger to conjure up images or memories of their commercials. The character in the ads is quite memorable though none of the ad storylines stick out at all for me. Perhaps the stories were merely a way of creating a variety of experiences through which you would gradually remember this character and his 2 lines. After repeated viewing, the audience is conditioned to expect a particular response to the prompt to "Can you hear me now?" and think of the commercial. Although this is a mildly wicked example of how people are trying to change what you think, I must applaud the people at Verizon for their cleverness and ingenuity. Bravo... Bravo...
Posted by Jeff Wong at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Take a small step
Last week I started exercising on a regular basis for the first time in my life. My regimen includes a run of 3-4 miles and some stretching execrcises, nothing really rigorous. Still these days I'm in state of mind where I'm acutely tuned to any information about exercising, healthy eating and so on. So, it isn't surprising that yesterday when I saw a banner ad on CNN for SmallStep.gov, I clicked on it. SmallStep.gov is a website of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) that encourages you to a small step towards better health. The site includes facts and tips on eating better and getting active. In addition to all this info, if you sign on you get access to an activity tracker where you can enter your eating and exercising schedule to do a better job tracking them (unfortunately the interaction on the site wasn't working very well when I tried it). What makes this site worthy of my attention. First of all, I came across the site when I was already partially motivated to look for information. Second, the banner ad was on the front page of CNN. It was a simple two color yet nicely designed ad. It had the web address on the ad which had the ".gov" domain. Moreover, the Ad Council logo was on the banner ad. All of these factors worked together to make me click the ad. The site itself is nicely designed and very credible since it is associated with HHS and has ".gov" in the web address. There are testimonials of "real" people who have made progress (although the example I read was quite extreme and not that useful for someone like me). You can get a lot of information without actually becoming a member. With the membership you get access to the interactive Activity Tracker. A lot of the things that they talk about on this site (for instance -- setting small goals) and how they've designed the overall interaction of the site remind me a lot of what we talked about in the Captology class that I TAed for BJ. Overall I think this site can become a good case study for students and practitioners of Captology.Posted by Aditya Johri at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sensor Nation: IEEE Spectrum
Just a note that IEEE Specturm (the student magazine of IEEE) has a special issue called "Sensor Nation" that has several articles on the use of sensors in everyday life (Sensor and Sensibility, We Like to Watch, etc). For those of you that are into science fiction (I'm not) there is also a story by Vernor Vinge titled "Synthetic Serendipity."Posted by Aditya Johri at 07:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2004
Gmail follow-up
Posted by Aditya Johri at 06:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Playing on emotions to sell puppies online
When most people choose a puppy, they follow their emotions. So it should be no surprise that some dog breeders are "best in class" at designing online experiences to play on people's emotions.Here's my favorite example: "Camelot Maltese."The website for Camelot Maltese is designed to evoke nurturing-related emotions in people seeking a small, cute companion dog. I find that for the intended audience, the site is brilliantly designed.WARNING: The website's sappy music and cutesy images may nauseate engineers and academics--or anyone who thinks too much. If the experience of Camelot Maltese turns your stomach, I encourage you to tough it out and keep surfing the site! The more you hate this online experience, the more you stand to learn about what makes everyday people tick. enjoy!
Posted by at 11:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Playing on emotions to sell puppies online
When most people choose a puppy, they follow their emotions. So it should be no surprise that some dog breeders are "best in class" at designing online experiences to play on people's emotions. Here's my favorite example: "Camelot Maltese." This website is designed to evoke nurturing-related emotions in people seeking a small, cute campanion dog. I find that for the intended audience, the site is brilliantly designed. WARNING: The website's sappy music and cutesy images may nauseate engineers and academics--or anyone who thinks too much. If the experience of Camelot Maltese turns your stomach, I encourage you to tough it out and keep surfing the site! The more you hate this online experience, the more you stand to learn about what makes everday people tick. enjoy! :-)Posted by at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2004
What I didn't intend to post . . .
I didn't intend to publish my recent post on Peak Oil Theory. I was trying out new software for blogging and just typed something in quickly. Peak Oil Theory was on my mind. I thought what I wrote would remain an unpublished draft. But now I see the post got published (oops!) and two people have commented. So . . . do I keep the post or delete it? I'm not sure. This topic doesn't relate to our lab's work -- it's like a hasty scrawl in the margin of a notebook. Don't be surprised if these two posts vanish soon. --BJPosted by at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 05, 2004
Peak Oil Theory
Nothing explains the absurdities and horrors of the U.S. action in Iraq better than Peak Oil Theory. I don't know how much scientific validity there is to this theory, but as a social scientist I am all for parsimonious explanations. Peak Oil Theory is just that.Posted by at 12:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The most important film ever -- Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is the most important film ever made.Why?
Because so much is at stake. This film could turn the presidential election in the U.S., changing the course of history.
Film is indeed a persuasive technology. However, we don't study the persuasive use of film. Our lab focuses on interactive computing technologies. Yet it's fascinating to watch how people respond to this film and other examples of persuasion.
Posted by at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Testing BlogJet
I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." -- Pablo PicassoPosted by at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack