MCC Technology Class (April 2012)

User Experience Professionals The Emerging Value Proposition

Presented to Manchester Community College - Technology SeminarApril, 2012

Michael Rawlins, User Experience Strategist

About me...Michael RawlinseBusiness Product Manager at Cigna

•Certified Usability Analyst since 2003•Certified User Experience Analyst (late 2012)•Early adopter of Social Networking•Instructor of:

•Usability Testing Methods •Interaction Design Techniques•Persuasive Design Techniques (PET)•Social Networking Strategy

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Why compelling?

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Big Hardware Smaller Hardware Software People!

User Experience...

60’s - mid 70’s mid-70’s - 80’s 90’s Now

Shifting Technology Focus...

What is Usability?

Navigation

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Decision Making

More definitions...Effectiveness - can users achieve their goals

Ease of learning - how fast do they learn the interface or system construct

Efficiency of use - how fast users complete tasks

Memorability - short & long term memory leveraged

Error prevention - is there forgiveness

User satisfaction - do users like the application

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User Experience...

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What’s a usability test?

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Where’s the USB port?

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Cool, but not intuitively obvious...

People respond to software & hardware that is easy to use.

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Mental models?“Things should work the way we think they should work...

... if you break the user’s mental model - they respond negatively.”

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UX Tools: Persuasion...Life = making choices

More information = more difficult to choose

More choices available = more difficult to choose

People have developed semi-automatic reactions to help make choices.

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Prefrontal Cortex @ logic (no!)

Controls reasoning and logic

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Amygdala @ emotions (yes!)

Semi-automatic reactions

Influencing people...Reciprocation

Commitment & Consistency

Social Proof

Authority

Liking

Scarcity14

Leveraging persuasion...Use reciprocity to give things away for free and people will return

People are inclined to return favors you have done for them

Chances are you’re already giving something away for free

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“Freemium” strategies...Free newsletters and RSS Feeds

Free Tips

Free webinars/podcast

Free trial software...

Goal: Ask users/visitors to promote your content in return for what they get.

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The sub-conscious mind... When something is scarce, people automatically perceive it more valuable

Scarcity in time is extremely effective (example: limited access to content, previews, etc.)

Scarcity in amount is equally effective in gaining users/visitors attention

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Designing for trust... Authority figures can trigger behaviors... Establishing authority makes it easy for people to choose you, your product or service offering over the next distraction

Social Proof “People are like sheep!”. The more information we put in front of our users/visitors, the more they rely on other people’s choices to make their own

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Changing behaviors...Commitment/Consistency - the moment people decide on something, they start convincing themselves it’s the right choice

Goal: Leveraging all of these elements as part of a Persuasive Architecture enables smart companies to rationalize social media initiatives.

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Create, Test, Adjust...

20http://www.patterntap.com

http://www.verifyapp.com

http://patternry.com/patterns/

Piano stairs - TheFunTheory.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Applied Persuasion...

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Suggested Reading...

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Getting Started in UX...

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http://www.ctupa.org

http://www.upassoc.org/

http://uxmag.com/articles/why-persuasive-design-should-be-your-next-skill-set

http://uxmag.com/articles/user-experience-for-developers

http://aneventapart.com/alasurvey2010/01.html

Questions?

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michael.rawlins@gmail.com

Thank you!

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