@mrjoe's talk from UX Bristol on the psychology used online to make customers feel better about an online purchase.

1. YOU LOVE MRJOE
Psychology, UX & the
dark arts
@mrjoe 1

2. Hello, I’m @mrjoe, but
you can call me Joe
@reply me on Twitter if you enjoyed the prezzo.
@mrjoe

3. What won’t be in
this workshop...
@mrjoe

4. YO
U
LO
VE
M
RJ
OE
@mrjoe

5. It started with
a book...
it started with a book, I found this book on my
Mum’s bookshelf, she’s a psychologist, explains
a lot. I found this book at 15, finally I thought, a
use for psychology.
5

6. I went on to study Neuroscience
then HCI at university.
YOU LOVE MRJOE 6

7. ...and another book
This one was lent to me by
Richard Caddick just after I
started working at cx 6 years
ago.
Why we buy. Great at explaining
well, why people buy stuff and
the psychology behind it.
http://short.cx/OLBYQc
7

8. Subliminal messaging James Vicary claimed to have introduced subliminal messages
with big advertisement effects in 1957 “Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" created
an 18.1% increase in Coke sales and a 57.8% increase in popcorn sales
Well no, it was faked. Subliminal messaging isn’t all it’s cracked up to be:
http://www.badabingrecords.com/2011/03/the-subliminal-scares-a-short-history-
of-an-american-obsession/
http://www.businessinsider.com/subliminal-ads-2011-5?op=1
8

9. Not very subliminal & not
very effective.
9

10. Can’t carry on without
talking about Harry
Brignell’s work on Dark
Patterns
10

11. This is the Ryanair example. [see
my blog post on where I did the
exact opposite for Trainline]
11

12. 12

13. @mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts
1. Don’t trick
2. Don’t cheat
3. Don’t lie
4. Provide positive benefit
We need some rules. Especially
point 4. Always be NICE!
13

14. This good looking chap is Garth Knight. Anyone
remember Michael Knight from Knight Rider?
Garth was his evil twin.
14

15. Evil Spock too!
Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols as
elements of communicative behaviour.
15

16. @mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts
1. Don’t trick
2. Don’t cheat
3. Don’t lie
4. Provide positive benefit
5. ALWAYS WEAR A GOATEE
16

17. Using Menu Psychology
to Entice Diners
By SARAH KERSHAW
New York Times.
December 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html
This is a great article about how to help people
order food and feel comfortable about what
they’ve ordered.
17

18. Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &
Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
An example menu
18

19. Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &
Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
This is called an ‘Enhancer’
19

20. Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &
Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
Cut out numbers and £ symbols = “Hello, you are about to spend
money!”
20

21. Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
Decoys = they may place a
really expensive item at the
top of the menu, so that
other dishes look more
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &
reasonably priced. research
shows that diners tend to
order neither the most nor
least expensive items,
drifting toward the middle
Sometime called PRICE
FRAMING
Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
21

22. Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
More
enhancers
- sensory
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
labels.
vivid
adjectives
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon &
Farm Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
22

23. UX, Psychology &
the 'dark arts'
____________________
____________________
____________________ ______ Cognitive biases
____________________
______ http://en.wikipedia.or
g/wiki/
List_of_cognitive_biases
Power Words
£629.99 £610.99 http://blog.emurse.com/
2007/02/08/complet
John': your price e-list-of-
english-power-words/
£5__. __
Save 22%
£14.12
Colour: black 6 in stock
_______________ Add to wishlist
I ❤ @mrjoe
Or pay £91 a month
over 36 months 19.9
% APR
You say:
We say:
£___.__ £___.__ Features:
The
exercise _______________
I ❤ @mrjoe
_______________
sheet. See
________________
________________
the blog
post for
more
details.
Uncle Joey's eatery
Pan fried Sea Bream 15.
Uncle Joey's Burger 9.
Glastonbury Smokehouse Bacon & Farm
Fresh Eggs 8.50.
Spaghe i Carbonara 7.
@mrjoe made this
23

24. Q. How do we test this stuff?
24

25. A B
A|B or multi-variant testing is great
for this. User testing less so
) 25

26. Learn from your spam folder
Symantec investigated the word composition of global spam for a 1 week period.
Word that encourage an immediate reaction, add emotion.
5 of the top 6 words have an exclamation mark. These are called POWER WORDS.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/word-usage-spam 26

27. The lime in Corona.
Where did it come
from ?
1. An ancient aztec Social proof is a type of
fertility ritual conformity. When a person
is in a situation where they
2. Introduced by are unsure of the correct
Spanish colonists in way to behave, they will
drinking water to act as often look to others for
a anti-bacterial cues concerning the correct
3. A result of a bet behavior. When "we
conform because we believe
between 2 barmen in
that other's interpretation of
NYC in 1981 to see if he an ambiguous situation is
could get patrons to more accurate than ours
copy him by putting a and will help us choose an
lime in the neck of the appropriate course of
bottle action,"
27

28. delicious.com/
mrjoe/uxcogpsy
28

29. We need to be careful how we used this stuff. Use it for good, don’t forget the code
we talked about. This stuff should be used to make people feel comfortable about
what they are doing, not by tricking them into something.
29

30. @mrjoe’s code of conduct for the dark arts
1. Don’t trick
2. Don’t cheat
3. Don’t lie
4. Provide positive benefit
We need some rules. Especially
point 4. Always be NICE!
30

31. Thank you.
I’m @mrjoe on twitter
I (we) write at
cxpartners.co.uk/blog
31