What Makes Them Click?

Hi Dan, It was a typo!! Thanks for alerting me. Y...

2009-10-31T20:54:25.380-05:00

Hi Dan,

It was a typo!! Thanks for alerting me. Yes, trusting your gut can sometimes get you into hot water, but there have been some great analyses that show that most (not always) of the time those rules of thumb work. Jonah Lehrer's book How We Decide describes that research well. And whether it's true or not, I think it's the way we are. I'm not at all sure we can change the way we make decisions. I'm still working on that idea.

Interesting post - Was the use of 'make' i...

2009-10-31T19:03:40.203-05:00

Interesting post - Was the use of 'make' instead of made in the first line for cognitive dissonance or merely a typo? I disagree a little with your 'go with the gut intuition because it is usually right' premise though. If that were the case we humans would have less difficulties because our decisions, which are almost always gut decisions. The decisions would not cause us so much "stuff" to undo or do better.
Trust your gut may be good for some but I believe not for all, we have a history as a species of invention and progress yes, but also some pretty nasty egocentric gut decisions. Thanks for a good read though - Dan Collins
www.asimpleguyblog.blogspot.com

Great insights! And I never did learn how to draw ...

2009-10-30T09:21:45.872-05:00

Great insights! And I never did learn how to draw with perspective.

Hello, Susan! Another interesting post! First, abo...

2009-10-30T05:14:32.831-05:00

Hello, Susan! Another interesting post! First, about your preamble... I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and I can assure to you that the laws of Isaac Newton (XVII century) are still valid for most of the stuff I studied. So... I couldn't agree with you more.
About the canonical perspective... shouldn't we say... most recognizable perspective? Or the one that gives us most of the details without being ambiguous? For example... the coffee cup seen from above can easily be confused with a hat (the handle of the coffee cup is the strap on the hat). So... maybe our brain stores the canonical (recognizable) perspective of the objects, which is used for an immediate representation of that object. However, drawing perspective isn't easy and requires some visual education. For example... children have some difficulty with perspective. Resuming: when we draw an icon, we must use the less ambiguous representation of what we want.

Susan, this is an excellent series with really int...

2009-10-29T08:34:04.604-05:00

Susan, this is an excellent series with really interesting and useful information. Thank you and please keep it up!

Thanks Basem for your feedback. I like the idea of...

2009-10-28T22:02:21.223-05:00

Thanks Basem for your feedback. I like the idea of having people rank from 1 to 9. I will try that next time!

Hi Susan, In fact, all the 9 topics included in t...

2009-10-28T20:07:09.008-05:00

Hi Susan,

In fact, all the 9 topics included in the survey to select from, are ALL REALLY of so interest. Remember, what bring me here to your wonderful blog -and I think most of blog visitors- is your great book. So, I think that everyone that had read the book is interesting in all the 9 subjects. But this may exhaust you and will takes too much time from you.

I suggest considering re-designing the survey so users can check their topic's priorities on a scale from 1 to 9.

This may help dedicating your efforts on important topics and also considering other less important (according to user ratings).

REMEMBER, I believe all are important and deserve covering in the blog.

Thank you very much.

Basem

Just to say that my previous message had an error!...

2009-10-27T10:21:45.390-05:00

Just to say that my previous message had an error! When I say "we should give more importance to what user says rather than what the users do" I meant "we should give more importance to what users DO rather than what the users SAY".

Yes, thanks for your comments. I agree that people...

2009-10-27T07:22:16.994-05:00

Yes, thanks for your comments. I agree that people don't like to read on a screen and there are things you need to do to make text more readable (another one of the 100 things that I'll get to in one of these blogs). We do, however, have to deal with this issue of preference vs. performance in many areas, line length being one of them. It's a philosophical decision we have to continualy make I believe.

Hello, Susan! First of all let me say that I'm...

2009-10-27T05:40:03.335-05:00

Hello, Susan! First of all let me say that I'm an assiduous portuguese reader of your blog and that I translate, adapt and comment some of your posts to portuguese in my Blog!

My answer to this question reminds me the teachings of another guru of accessibility/usability (Jakob Nielsen) that tells us that we should give more importance to what user says rather than what the users do.

However, the answer is not so simple. According to my superficial reading of the paper, the study does not quantify the gains in speed against the number of characters per line and the understanding of the text. I mean that the gains may not justify the final appearance of the page (less appealing to users). More important than the number of characters per line is the text being adapted for the Web. Nobody likes to read large portions of text on the screen. If your goal is to get users to read a novel or other large literature on screen, then you should use the proven techniques that make easier the reading.

I'll have to check out The Hidden Persuaders!

2009-10-24T23:47:31.499-05:00

I'll have to check out The Hidden Persuaders!

Those little buggers are always one step ahead ......

2009-10-24T23:28:09.778-05:00

Those little buggers are always one step ahead ....

an old book == The Hidden Persuaders.

ive always wondered if the gas companies are earni...

2009-10-22T23:32:59.533-05:00

ive always wondered if the gas companies are earning millions of dollars in EXTRA profit by slowing down the gas pump earlier and earlier.

im thinking that SURELY - the technology exists to have the gas pump shut off right at the pre-paid amount, versus slowing down at the final .25 cent to be pumped mark.

i imagine the majority of us impatient americans choose to put the pump back up rather than wait for the final 15-20 cents to slowly pump b/c that's not much money.

but for the oil companies - multiply that .15-.20 by millions of transactions a day - and ur talking about pure sweet profit!

Thanks Susan for the Review! For those of you who ...

2009-10-20T09:24:41.693-05:00

Thanks Susan for the Review!
For those of you who want to see an early, early version of my website before Neuro Web Design, go to http://www.creative-wealthbuilding.com/steps-to-building-wealth.html

You should be able to see the major changes. Neuro web design is a must if you want to be an "infopreneur" or in the web-business. I wish I had this book before I started my web business. It would of shaved off years of the learning I went through.

Of course, for this to work, you must establish and have value. Your value must be the foundation.

Thanks Again!

Peace and Love
Nick

I'm working on a travel industry project right...

2009-10-14T18:34:56.393-05:00

I'm working on a travel industry project right now and you would not believe how outdated the inventory systems are behind the scenes - there's a lot of technical reasons why even the big boys still use the interstitial "WAIT FOR IT" page while they retrieve your results - and it's a lot to do with the fact that they let you book real content from that point onwards.

Kayak is purely for travel search/select, that's all - you'll find you get dumped back to those other horrible sites to continue soon enough, making all that fun for nought - and often not showing you the price that Kayak quoted.

We love Kayak here too, and it's not an excuse to deliver a crap UX because the systems are hard to work with, but it sure is hard!

The nifty caching which enables the UI tricks of Kayak aren't so easy to do when you have to make sure your prices are bang up to the minute.

I'm working on a travel industry project right...

2009-10-14T18:34:39.093-05:00

I wish more people would follow these guidelines. ...

2009-10-12T20:15:04.420-05:00

I wish more people would follow these guidelines. I don't think I've ever sat through a Powerpoint presentation that wasn't boring! Why do people put their outlines on the screen AND hand out copies of the same outline so you can read along while the presenter reads it out loud?

Very good point about trust.

2009-10-12T20:10:20.531-05:00

Very good point about trust.

Oh hum, just another credit card touting for busin...

2009-10-09T04:27:43.040-05:00

Oh hum, just another credit card touting for business.

There's nothing on this screenshot that impresses me at all.

But maybe I'm just cynical about all financial institutions.

And who wouldn't be after the last two years we've had.

Now, if they were to actually give me something, then perhaps I'd reciprocate.

But does anyone really believe a credit card company is going to do them any favours?

Maybe I have"too much" knowledge to trust them.

Mark

All these ways are effective I must say. Web design agency

They are persuasive in their use of language (&quo...

2009-10-04T17:15:10.779-05:00

They are persuasive in their use of language ("your" account and for "you"), the simplicity of their introduction to these new features (we could just sit and watch), and the simplicity of the example features they demonstrate. Quite persuasive, but when I dug deeper, I did not find the statement particularly easy to read or understand.

Wonder if this was just a sneaky way to get your e...

2009-10-03T07:05:03.609-05:00

Wonder if this was just a sneaky way to get your email address? Maybe when you got the errors, the page was designed that way. To collect your email and send you on your way - frustrated.

"you want to learn more? just click on the fe...

2009-09-30T09:14:37.348-05:00

"you want to learn more? just click on the features..."; it's so easy to comply, it feels like he is looking at me while talking, he's friendly, the dog, the blue "u"

Animation and graphics featuring "attractive&...

2009-09-29T07:30:51.951-05:00

Animation and graphics featuring "attractive" people "like me" and their trusty companion, the dog. Telling several stories that I can relate to. Made it personal. Use phrases like free, you choose, your finances, your terms, only available through chase.

To avoid forgetting ideas I think up in the shower...

2009-09-28T08:15:58.067-05:00

To avoid forgetting ideas I think up in the shower, I purchased a waterproof diver's slate - what SCUBA divers use to make notes to each other.

While just a pencil on a while plastic tablet, it has been an idea-saver many times!