Psychology Cards
10 minutes late to the start of the panel — Groupon breakfast ran long with cool conversations with cool people.
He’s talking about iLike.com where, instead of getting a form to enter artists he likes, he was presented with a grid of artists (picture + title) that he could select bands he likes. At the bottom of the page he could see more artists or he could go to the homepage. Very much like Netflix.
He clicked through 10 pages of artists. The visual nature of the list piqued his curiousity.
Recognition over Recall – select bands you know rather than bands you like.
More seductive interations on iLike: they gave him the iLike challenge where they played song snippets and rewarded points like a game depending on how fast you can identify the song name.
Increasing motivation = psychology.
What do we know about people? We’re curious. We seek out patterns. We don’t like to make choices but we like choice. Mine: We see patterns even where there are none. We seek the opinions of those we trust or we rely on the wisdom of crowds. People like to talk about themselves. People like free stuff.
His stuff: we’re lazy, self-centered, like to be the hero of the story, respond to our name when it is called out, we’re afraid of change.
If we know people are curious, how can we use that?
If you salt (seed) the tip jar people are more likely to add tips. It’s an example of the social proof (similar concept to the wisdom of crowds).
Good example of social proof: the let’s fix Outlook site that has a wave of user avatars in the background.
How to be Mysterious & Intriguing
The Hot Wheels section has tons of options but it also has a mystery car where you don’t know what you’re getting. That’s the one the speaker’s kids always want.
California Kitchen gives out a card prize but you can’t open it. You have to let them open it when you come back. It could be a free appetizer or $1,000. Great example of mystery.
LinkedIn will show you some of the people who have viewed your profile but you have to upgrade your account to see everybody who views it. It only shows you a teaser of who has looked at it though. A “leader in the design industry” for example.
Quantcast gives away website metrics for free then asks “Is this your site? Get Quantified to get more data.”
Playing Hard-to-Get
Private beta + social proof = a powerful combination, much like a nightclub where you have to be invited to get in.
Provide a limited interface. Twitter has a max of 140 characters. Rypple limits reviews to 200 characters.
Earning points to unlock features or spaces.
Sabre’s internal wiki:
- 60-70% of Sabre employees actively use the system each month.
- 60% of questions asked are answered within one hour of posting (90% in 24 hours).
- Average of 30 page views per employee per visit.
- Each post receives an average of nine answers.
Giving limited points to dish out to your own skillsets from a list forces you to limit your responses to what you’re really good at (great idea for a job applicant board!).
Lighten Up
Showing a “No Parking” sign. Now showing a Chili’s sign: Curbside pick-up only. All others will be crushed. Showing several other examples of humorous copy online.
Taking a Chance
You meet people at parties but you don’t really remember their names. Some sites throw in default data. Example: Brighter Planet encourages you to go green. It starts out by populating your profile with defaults and giving you a default rating. It asks for a lot of data but everything you enter affects your rating number. They only expose one form field at a time. You enter one and that form field goes away and it shows you the next one. This is both default data and a good feedback loop.
On Friskiness, Gifts & Pleasant Surprises
“Brains pay attention to what brains care about, not necessarily what the conscious mind cares about.”
What does the brain find interesting? Surprise, novelty, the unexpected, fun, playfulness.
Mailchimp has recommended sizes. If you make an email too wide it starts giving you warnings “ouch, stop it, too wide, etc.” If you make it too wide you tear the monkey’s arms off.
Will the real dopplr logo please stand up? Every visit the color bars change on the site. Very spartan site except for color. Color represents locations, cities around the world. But they don’t tell you that, which makes it a fun thing.
Why does this work?
Pattern recognition, playfulness, delightfulness.
Now What?
Sorry, no 9 tips or 5 lessons, but he is making a group of “mental notes” cards. The next time you’re sitting down with a group trying to solve a problem (ex: we need more registered users), you pull out a card and then brainstorm different ways to apply the principle of psychology that is on the card (ex: social proof). Cards will be available at the end of April. Preview packs of the first seven cards are being given away to attendees of the panel!
I missed a lot of stuff. I couldn’t keep up with the speaker. Good panel.
