Using your UX Super Powers for Good or Evil - Theo Mandel, PhD

© 2015 Theo Mandel, PhD
Using your UX Design
Super Powers for
Good or Evil
Theo Mandel, Ph.D.
June 23, 2015

Theo Mandel, Ph.D.
theo@theomandel.com
www.theomandel.com
linkedin.com/in/theomandel
theomandel
• M.A., Ph.D., Cognitive/Quantitative Psychology
• IBM – Senior user interface architect (OS/2) (11 years)
• Independent UX & Usability consultant (20+ years)
• Author of two books (Van Nostrand Reinhold, John Wiley & Sons)
• Many keynote presentations on “Golden Rules of UX Design”
Presentation will be available on SlideShare,
from the conference, or contact me directly

Using Your
UX Design
Super Powers
for Good or Evil
Theo Mandel, Ph.D.

Using Your
UX Design
Super Powers
for Good or Evil
Theo Mandel, Ph.D.
Evil Design Example – Text Changes

USING YOUR
UX DesignSUPER POWERS
forGOOD OR Evil
Theo Mandel, Ph.D.
Evil Design Example – Text Changes

“It must be true – I read it on the Internet!”
“In a report 'Truth, Lies and the Internet’ (2011),
a think tank found that a third of teens polled in
the UK believe any information found online was
true without qualification
Even more staggering is that 15 percent of that
group admit to making a decision about the
truthfulness of content of a web page based on
appearance alone”
Why are we talking about this topic?

Using UX for
Good
Persuasive
Design
Evil Design &
Dark Patterns© 2015 Theo Mandel, PhD

Using UX for Good
UX design powers should be used to do
Good things for users
not
Bad things to users
Understand user behavior, needs and goals
• UX guidelines, standards & patterns
• “Golden rules of UX design”

UX Guidelines and Standards
• Industry/platform, Web, mobile guidelines
• Key industry players – Apple, IBM, Microsoft,
Google, Yahoo, etc.
• My background, starting at IBM (1982-1993)

“About 90% of usability guidelines from
1986 are still valid, though several
guidelines are less important because they
relate to design elements that are rarely
used today.”
Jakob Nielsen (January 17, 2005)
Durability of Usability Guidelines

Ray Kurzweil, futurist and entrepreneur,
considers pattern recognition so important
that in his 2013 book, How to Create a
Mind, he argued that pattern recognition
and intelligence are essentially the same
thing
Importance of UX Patterns

Golden Rules of UX Design
3 major areas:
• Place users
in control
• Reduce user’s
memory load
• Make the
experience
consistent See my SlideShare Presentation

Place Users in Control
Modeless
Flexible
Interruptible
Helpful
Forgiving
Navigable
Accessible
Facilitative
Preferences
Interactive

Place Users in Control – Flexible
Planes
Trains
Automobiles

Place Users in Control – Flexible
Customers /
Cashier want
to order in
any order!

Place Users in Control – Accessible

Reduce Users’ Memory Load
Remember
Recognition
Inform
Forgiving
Frequency
Intuitive
Transfer
Context
Organize

Reduce Users’ Memory Load – Recognition
Recall is
difficult
Recognition
is easier

Reduce Users’ Memory Load – Inform
Users should always be able to answer these
four questions:
Who I am? (Login info)
Where
can I go?
Where have I been? Where I am?

Reduce Users’ Memory Load – Context
Progressive
Disclosure!

Make the User Experience Consistent
Continuity
Experience
Expectation
Attitude
Predictable

Make the User Experience Consistent?
Don Norman
– Affordances (1988)

Make the experience consistent
Make the User Experience Consistent??

Make the User Experience Consistent?

Persuasive Design
B.J. Fogg – Founder, Persuasive Technology Lab,
Stanford University

Fogg Behavior Model

When 2 elements converge, likeliness increases
Fogg Behavior Model

When 3 elements converge, Behavior happens
Fogg Behavior Model

8-Step Persuasive Design Process
1st four steps
can be worked
on in various
order, not
necessarily
sequential

Key: Test &
iterate quickly!
8-Step Persuasive Design Process

Persuasive Design Example
1. Choose a simple
behavior to target

2. Choose a
receptive audience

3. Find what is
preventing the
target behavior

4. Choose an appropriate
technology channel
Textual Physical

5. Find relevant examples
of persuasive technology

6. Imitate successful
examples

Spillage rates
dropped 80%!!
7. Test & iterate
quickly

8. Expand on
success

Persuasive Design – Consumer Options
Triggers – Middle
Options:
Overpriced top-tier option makes users
feel the middle product is a bargain.
© 2015
Theo
Mandel, PhD

Persuasive Design – Real World
Motivation?
Ability?
Trigger!!
© 2015
Theo Mandel, PhD

Desired behavior takes place when
Motivation, Ability and Triggers converge (B=MAT)
In order to boost conversion you need to:
• Help people do what they already want to do
(Motivation)
• Tap into the right motivators (money, status, rewards,
etc.)
• Make taking action as easy as possible (Ability)
• Focus on simplification (KISS)
• GOAL: Put hot triggers on the path of motivated,
able people
Persuasive Design – Takeaways

Obsess about triggers – your business depends on them
• Don’t be afraid to use triggers – a trigger is not a nag
– you’re helping users.
• If you trigger then when they lack ability, they’ll get
frustrated
• If you trigger people when they don’t have
motivation (e.g. asking people to shop for Christmas
presents in June), you’re annoying them
• Ultimately, if you trigger people at the right time, in
the right way, they will thank you!
Fogg’s Behavior Wizard – www.behaviorwizard.org
Persuasive Design – Takeaways

Human Factors International (HFI)
PET Methodology is based on social psychology,
existing marketing principles and research on how
users interact with information
• Persuasion: Principles used to encourage or
discourage a users behavior during a process
• Emotion: Principles used to encourage any
emotional response during a process such as
achievement, empathy or surprise
• Trust: Principles used to establish confidence
during a process, for example: confidence,
security and credibility
Persuasion, Emotion and Trust (PET)

Persuasion, Emotion and Trust

Using UX for Evil
• Make users do things they don’t know
they’ve done or they don’t want to do
• Poor design is not intentionally
deceptive, but dark UX design is!!
• Dark Patterns – producing user
interfaces using UX techniques
designed precisely to trick people

• Pride
• Sloth
• Gluttony
• Anger
• Envy
• Lust
• Greed
EvilByDesign.info
Seven Deadly Sins (chapter on each sin)

Envy
1. Examples
Kickstarter – business model is making people feel ownership before they’ve bought a
product, or indeed, even before it’s even been made. You pledge money and become a
backer of a proposed creative project. Obviously, if the project doesn’t meet funding goals
you aren’t billed. If you want the product, it’s in your best interest to persuade as many
other people as you can that they too should get involved
2. Principles
In his book Emotional Design, Don Norman states that we are much more emotionally
attached to products for which we feel some involvement. This is true even before we own
the product. Clever sites invite us in and make us feel like a member of the family before we
even part with our cash
3. How to encourage ownership before purchase
• Show people how your product will apply to their lives so that they get excited and
remain excited about it through the pre-purchase phase.
• For products that have yet to be released, provide frequent status updates, teases and
reveals (“leaks”). However, never over-promise!
• AND MORE…

Dark Patterns – DarkPatterns.org

Dark Patterns – Examples
• Interfaces easy to get in, hard to get out of
• Free trials/subscriptions aren’t easy to
cancel
• Hidden costs added on at the end of
process
• Trick questions/deceptive form design
• Text effects & text contrast

Easy to Get In, Hard to Get Out
How do users log out?

Easy to Get In, Hard to Get Out

Free Trials that aren’t Easy to Cancel
© 2015
Theo Mandel, PhD

2010
$27.00
$44.95
Persuasive techniques:
emotion & motivation
Hidden Costs at End of Process

Hidden Costs at End of Process
0$27.00
$40.20
$44.95
Ticketmaster’s CEO, Nathan Hubbard – “You don’t like service fees.”
You just want to know UP FRONT in the buying process how much of
your hard earned money you are being asked to pay for a given seat.
The problem is historically we haven’t told you how much you have
to pay for a given seat until very late in the buying process. Our data
tells us this angers many of you to the point that you abandon your
purchase once you see the total cost, and that you don’t come back.
The data also says (and this is the important piece) that if we had
told you up front what the total cost was, you would have bought the
ticket! So by perpetuating this antiquated fee presentation, fans are
getting upset, while we and our clients are losing ticket sales.

The “New” Ticketmaster

Upsell!

More Upsell!

Even More Upsell!!

Finally – Hidden Cost

Then, Even More Upsell!

Trick Questions / Form Design

Text Effects – Reading Difficulty
• Small
Fonts
• All capital
letters
• Poor
contrast,
italics
• Text as
graphic

Text Contrast – ContrastRebellion.com

Persuasive Design vs. Evil Design
• Persuasion
• Marketing tactics
• Open & transparent
• Upfront about intent
• “Nudging”
• Manipulation/Coercion
• Deceptive/Fraudulent
• Disregards users’ interests
• Hidden information /
devious intent
• “Shoving”
Persuasive Design Evil Design

“Two-thirds of shoppers are unhappy with
their online customer experience”
• Research reveals shoppers’ frustrations with
e-commerce, as 40% of UK consumers
bemoan the difficulty of buying on mobile
(Information Age, February 16, 2015)
• This poor experience could explain why over
a third (36%) of UK consumers say they don’t
plan to make any purchases from mobile
devices this year
Online Consumer Experience

• Consumer confidence is essential to the growth
of online commerce. The Internet must provide
consumers with clear, accurate information and
give sellers an opportunity to fairly compete with
one another for consumers’ business
• Investigation by the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation found
abundant evidence that aggressive sales tactics
companies use against their online customers
undermine consumer confidence in the Internet
and thereby harm the American economy
Online Consumer Experience

Complexity of Privacy Statements

So, what is being done to
guard against Evil design
on the Web and to
protect consumers?

Federal Trade Commission

FTC .Com Disclosures (2013)
• Original guidelines released in 2000
• Updated advertising guidelines take into
account challenges created by rapid growth of
mobile and online advertising platforms,
particularly small screen size and other space
constraints
• New FTC guidelines seek to help businesses
apply many of the same principles to modern
technologies and marketing channels
www.FTC.gov (53-page document)

FTC Effectiveness Factors – 4 P’s
Clear and Conspicuous Requirements
1. Prominence: whether the qualifying information is
prominent enough for consumers to notice it and
read (or hear) it
2. Presentation: whether the qualifying information is
presented in easy to-understand language that does
not contradict other things said in the ad and is
presented at a time when consumers’ attention is not
distracted elsewhere
3. Placement: whether the qualifying information is
located in a place and conveyed in a format that
consumers will read (or hear)
4. Proximity: whether the qualifying information is
located in close proximity to the claim being qualified

Effectiveness Factors – Proximity
Good Bad

Effectiveness Factors – Proximity, Placement

Effectiveness Factors – Placement, Presentation

4
Effectiveness Factors – Placement, Presentation

FTC ROSCA
Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (2010):
• Focus on 3rd party sellers who use a free trial
period to enroll members, after which they
periodically charge consumers until consumers
affirmatively canceled the memberships.
• Use of ‘‘free-to-pay conversion’’ and ‘‘negative
option’’ sales that takes advantage of
consumers’ expectations that they have an
opportunity to accept or reject the membership
club offer at the end of the trial period.

FTC ROSCA
NO NEGATIVE OPTIONS, unless:
1. Provide text that clearly and conspicuously
discloses all material terms of the transaction
before obtaining the consumer’s billing
information
2. Obtain consumer’s express informed consent
before charging consumer’s credit card, debit
card, bank account, or other financial account for
products or services through the transaction
3. Provide simple mechanisms for a consumer to
stop recurring charges from being placed on the
consumer’s credit card, debit card, bank account,
or other financial account

FTC ROSCA – Good Example

EU Consumer Rights Directive
• European Union law (June 2014)
Law applies to anyone selling goods, services,
or digital products online and offline.
• "Web Designer's Guide to the Consumer Rights
Directive" book is written for website designers,
web developers, site administrators, and e-
commerce managers to teach them how to make
websites compliant.

EU Consumer Rights Directive

Where to
go for
more
information
on these
topics

• Usability.gov – Research-based guidelines
• Mandel “Golden Rules” presentations (SlideShare)
• UI-Patterns.com – UI patterns
• Mobile UX: Patterns to Make Sense of it All (book)
• Yahoo Design Pattern Library (+ list of patterns)
• Apple IOS Human Interface Guidelines
• Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics Podcast – Part 1
www.designreviewpodcast.com/02/10/2015/episode-16-nielsens-usability-
heuristics-part-1/
• Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics Podcast – Part 2
www.designreviewpodcast.com/02/25/2015/episode-17-nielsens-usability-
heuristics-part-2/
References – “Good Design”

• BJ Fogg – BJFogg.com, FoggMethod.com
• Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab
• Persuasion, Emotion, Trust Methodology, HFI
• Changing Behavior through Persuasive Design
(Matt Danna, 2014 SlideShare)
• How to Get People to Do Stuff
(Susan Weinschenk, 2013 book)
• Designing for Behavior Change: Applying
Psychology and Behavioral Economics
(Stephen Wendel, 2013 book)
• Mobile Persuasion Design
(Aaron Marcus, 2015 book)
References – Persuasive Design

• Evil by Design: Interaction Design to lead us into
Temptation (Chris Nodder, 2013 book)
• Evil by Design – EvilbyDesign.info
• Dark Patterns – DarkPatterns.org
Government Consumer Rights Efforts
• FTC .Com Disclosures
• FTC Restoring Online Shoppers Confidence Act
• EU Consumer Rights Directive
References – Evil Design, Dark Patterns

Are you a UX Design Super Villain?

UX Villains = Unhappy Users

Or, are you UX Design Super Heroes?

UX Super Heroes = Happy Users

Thank
You!

theo@theomandel.com
www.theomandel.com
linkedin.com/in/theomandel
theomandel
Questions?
Presentation will be available on SlideShare,
from the conference, or contact me directly

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