I think people are influenced as much as they allow.
The assumptions here are that people are rational and have an unlimited
length of time to analyze their decisions. Trouble is that both assumptions
are incorrect. We, people, are mostly unaware of our goals, attitudes,
drives and the subtle
Here is an example. of sales and influence.
You have millions of people who cannot afford to buy a house. They just can't.
No money. They should save and wait until they really can afford to even
consider it. But the mortgage business says, yes you can. Don't worry about
it. It will be fine
Brad Nunnally wrote:
Control is simply the absence of that choice. I always
use supermarkets in the US as an example of controlling their customers
behavior. On average, the most common thing people want when going to a
supermarket is milk. The managers know this, and put it as far away as
Hi Jared,
Thanks for the kind wishes!
I read that to mean that you equated direct control to influencing behavior.
When you get a chance, can you explain the difference?
To be honest this is a gray line, but here are my thoughts. When you
influence someone's behavior there is always the choice
My opinion is that Interaction Design doesn't influence or manipulate
behavior it facilitates it; simplifies it.
Read my full opinon here:
http://thesalon.blogspot.com/search?q=bokardo
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
On Jul 29, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Brad Nunnally wrote:
Sorry for my lack if responses, currently adjusting to my new life
as a father and learning how to manage my time. I gave been
following, just not able to respond as much as I wish.
Perfectly reasonable choice. Family stuff trumps IxDA
On Jul 29, 2009, at 12:37 PM, Jon Karpoff wrote:
One ethical consideration I run into often is a client wanting the
marketing email option defaulted to opt-in. Typically these
options are
buried at the bottom of the page, below the fold and buried in fine
print.
I always push for either
Fascinating discussion. Let me share something that I do believe is
truly unethical.
I've been talking with the webmaster for several porn sites to learn
more about streaming video. She (yes, she) told me a creepy story about
how one site coerces new subscribers to submit to the recurring
Hi Jared,
Sorry for my lack if responses, currently adjusting to my new life as
a father and learning how to manage my time. I gave been following,
just not able to respond as much as I wish.
I don't see any moral issues when it comes to influencing a persons
behavior. Simple because at
Great example, Eric! (not just about defaults, but resetting
defaults...almost evil)
Here's another interesting tidbit concerning influence, care of Steve
Jobs of Apple.
It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and
it’s not about convincing people that they want
For some reason this feels like a familiar conversation, but this flies in
the face of so much that we discuss
and insist upon in our standard practices, doesn't it?
Genius design? Or is this safe to say when you're an industry leader and
have a proven record with it?
Cool read!
Scott
On Wed,
One ethical consideration I run into often is a client wanting the
marketing email option defaulted to opt-in. Typically these options are
buried at the bottom of the page, below the fold and buried in fine print.
I always push for either opt-out as the default, or no default value at
all.
Jon
How about the ethics of temporarily blinding users that don't use a
products as intended?
Read this story:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/pepperspray/
Now that's what I call influencing behavior through design.
What's next, the tazer equipped vending machine? You better have
exact
As it's been mentioned, influence is out there in many contexts, not
just in Interaction Design. I don't think it's wrong to influence
someone, nor can you avoid it in any interaction with people. Being
ethical is being aware of the implications of that influence and
avoiding causing harm to those
Ack.. Apparently the link correction I gave for Chris Nodder's Evil
by Design site still didn't work. Hopefully this one's right:
http://www.usability4evil.com/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44045
Brian,
that's an interesting example, but even tho it's organ donation, i
wouldn't consider it a matter of ethics (ironically, or not, the
person's dead). we need to be careful with words here. the form that
defaults to opt in hasnt really influenced the user but has
influenced the
It is a kind of influence, and with the various terms, folks are talking
past one another in some of these messages.
The question for me is do I use my powers of design for good or for
Awesome?
I think ethics here is in what the user desires to have done.
Influence covers a wide range of factors,
On Jul 28, 2009, at 1:33 PM, adrian chan wrote:
Brian,
that's an interesting example, but even tho it's organ donation, i
wouldn't consider it a matter of ethics (ironically, or not, the
person's dead). we need to be careful with words here. the form that
defaults to opt in hasnt really
Ok folks, time for a step back.
Interaction Design as defined in almost every place, but most
importantly on our web site
(http://www.ixda.org/about_interaction.php) is all about designing
behavior.
Interaction design defines the structure and behaviors of
interactive products and services and
I've been following this discussion with interest but haven't had time to
contribute what I'd like (seriously, there's a whole book to write about
this subject!). But Josh's mention of the power of defaults as a influence
technique tipped me into a quick response.
I'm researching *how design can
i don't mean to stop the discussion. (nor do I have any sort of power
to insist on that anyway, or do it?)
My point being that we are not talking about whether or not we can
influence, the question of the debate is how far should we go and
even then that debate is really so subjective, I'm not
I find this whole debate fascinating. I really dont see where ethics
come into the picture, though I see where questions arise around
integrity, influence, design, and truth.
To supplement examples of design issues in social media, for example,
take Dave's: increase contributions. From my
On Jul 28, 2009, at 11:51 AM, Dan Lockton wrote:
it's a great debate
If only I understood what we were debating.
It's disappointing when an author posts his article for discussion
then doesn't participate in said discussion. Maybe we should debate
how that is wrong?
Jared
I've got an electric toothbrush at home as well (Oral-B, I think it is)
which has an automatic timer for 2 or 3 minutes. I don't remember which it
is because I don't have to. When I start brushing it starts counting for me
and pulses to let me know when I've gone on long enough.
It doesn't
I have to say I find this thread a little silly. Of course design
influences behavior. Everything in the environment influences behavior.
We design tools, and we wouldn't design them (or build them) if we
didn't want people to use them.
Influencing behavior is not the same thing as coercing
Influencing behavior is not the same thing as coercing behavior.
Where do you draw the line between influencing and coercing? Do you
even draw the line at all? Product advertisements have been made for
hundreds of years, with the intent of maximum persuasion to buy the
product (coercing?). Is
Influence and coerce are different in that coerce has the notion of force
associated with its meaning.
Advertising may influence but I don't think it coerces.
Would you fall into submission so easily to a commercial?
What is maximum persuasion?
I think people are influenced as much as they
Generally speaking, folks don't have to subject themselves to our
designs, and when they do, they can resist the behavioral adjustments.
There are exceptions, of course: children are often seen as having less
ability to resist adjustments, and less choice about what they
experience. That's why
Brian,
I think coercion is probably a misnomer. It suggests use of force or
the threat of use of force, and if we use it we'll confuse matters
with truly oppressive political and institutional strategies... I'd
prefer terms like appeal, suggest, even deceive, falsify, or
manipulate if
Speaking from a mother's perspective, it's quite a bit easier to brush
kids' teeth (and to feel like you got them all) of a sometimes squirmy
child with an electric toothbrush set to low (I use the plug-in electric
toothbrushes, not the disposable ones, as for whatever reason, they
decided not to
I didn't mean to speak specifically to advertising, just to the
notion that you definitely can influence a person's behavior, to the
point of them taking an action they might not have done otherwise.
Take the example of default opt-out for organ donation. I'm sure
you've all heard of it where
Jared Spool wrote:
Then Dr. John's Products released a line of children's power
toothbrushes. (Subsequently acquired by Proctor Gamble.) The battery
powered devices only have an On switch and automatically turn off after
3 minutes. The 3 minute run time forces the child to brush the entire
I'm pretty sure the puppet masters know who they are.
However, I am glad to see us take our responsibilities as designers
seriously, as John Thackara discusses in his book *In the bubble*
http://bit.ly/29AmwK
If you'd like a more thoroughly researched exploration of how people take
care of
On Jul 26, 2009, at 11:00 AM, j. eric townsend wrote:
Jared Spool wrote:
Then Dr. John's Products released a line of children's power
toothbrushes. (Subsequently acquired by Proctor Gamble.) The
battery powered devices only have an On switch and automatically
turn off after 3 minutes.
Jared Spool wrote:
Over the past 20+ years, the ADA has tried a variety of solutions.
Nothing has been as successful as the introduction of children's powered
toothbrushes.
Now, you can debate whether they missed something or the resulting
design is somehow suboptimal. However, that misses
On Jul 23, 2009, at 3:32 PM, Brad Nunnally wrote:
A few months ago, I asked the group if we, as designers, had the
right to
influence, or control, the behavior of another person. The feedback
I received was great and inspired me to take the discussion a step
further
by writing an article
A %u2018good%u2019 game design would reward its players for taking
breaks, how you incorporate that into game play would prove to be an
interesting challenge.
Civilization would display a message saying You've been playing
for 3 hours, take a break. Naturally, I dismissed the dialog and
kept
Hello,
A few months ago, I asked the group if we, as designers, had the right to
influence, or control, the behavior of another person. The feedback
I received was great and inspired me to take the discussion a step further
by writing an article on the subject for Johnny Holland. Please check it
For a useful (and amusing) way to explore this subject further, you
should check out Chris Nodder's Evil By Design site:
http://design4evil.com which invites people to contribute examples of
evil design and match them up with one of the 7 deadly sins
(greed, pride, sloth, etc.).
As you point out,
This reminds me of a talk I saw by Bill Buxton recently. He asked
attendees to sketch a PDA in 15 seconds, then do the same for its UI,
and lastly for it's interaction design. In the last case he said
something to the effect, If there isn't some part of a person in
the sketch of the interaction,
Interesting article.
I'll play contrarian. We as designers see a world as it could be,
often a more user friendly one. But if end users can't see it, they
won't every get there and we'd be stuck with torches and caves.
Progress is change, people don't like change, so we have to lure them
into
Hi Brad,
I'd like to know what you and the others think of IxDs triggering intended
behaviour through persuasion or even nagging. One scenario:
A company has received complaints that applications are being treated too
late and applicants receiving no response whatsoever for months. So, they
@ Troy – That’s the tricky part for me, design implies influence. There just
is no way around it. It is how we influence though that just consumes my
curiosity. You do bring up a good point though with Video games, especially
MMO’s like WoW. As an ex-WoW player myself, I know how hard it is to
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