February 2017 | It's about time
If you’ve read many of my previous newsletters, you may know that digital distraction – and trying to curb it – is an obsession of mine. Tristan Harris, former Googler and advocate for designing disengagement, is hard at work solving the problem. As designers, is this something you incorporate into your work? (I listened to this article being read to me (Is that lazy? I found it quite pleasant.), and you can too; there’s an Audm file embedded on the page.)
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DESIGN FOR TIME WELL SPENT
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SPEAKING OF MANIPULATING THE USER…
If Time Well Spent (see item 1) isn’t your jam, using cognitive bias to manipulate your user is a fascinating field (depicted as bad in item 1 and heralded as the way to win users here in item 2). For example: “When trying to teach behavior in your product, first establish a ladder of goals for your user. As they make progress, support and motivate them with visualizations that show how close the next milestone is. When they reach milestones, create positive reinforcement by celebrating the achievement and offering a quick way to make headway towards the next one.” Just keep dangling that carrot; the users can’t help but bite.
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OBJECTIVITY VS. PERCEPTION
Did you know that designers can manipulate a person’s perception of time? It makes sense; I’ve noticed that 10 minutes of folding laundry takes far more time than 10 minutes of reading a book. (I have two kids now; folding laundry is my primary extracurricular.) So, design. Since many users abandon a website after a mere three seconds of lag time, designers need to understand how their users perceive time (spoiler alert: it’s not rational) in order to serve the user the best content while holding their attention while said content loads.
Forms are everywhere on mobile, so you might as well get them right.
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FORM FACTOR
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T&Cs: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
We’ve all accepted the terms and conditions of this or that service without reading much (or any) of the legalese, but would a cartoon featuring a Steve Jobs-esque Calvin/Homer/Snoopy/Dilbert format increase readership? The content is more visually appealing, but I’m not convinced this would entice me to read the whole iTunes terms.