Consumer psychology - free book and lecture with HSE

Friends, you can download and read my book " Consumer Psychology ". Already more than 10,000 have done it :)

Annotation: How has customer behavior changed in the e-commerce era? What will help the client to make the right choice? How to manage the visitor's view of the site? The first book on the psychology of Internet users is the expert experience of the founder of UsabilityLab, engineering psychologist Dmitry Satin.

Reviews of the book in social networks are very positive!
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And if it is interesting to continue the conversation, come to the open lecture on December 22 at 19:00 at the HSE.

Lecture is free. It is organized in support of crowdfunding for the second book " On Usability "

Under the cut a fragment of the chapter of the second book "About usability"

Usability is a simplification. But to what extent should one simplify the life of a person?

The motto of World Usability Day, celebrated since 2005 on the second Thursday of November - Making Life Easier! If we consider this premise the main value of usability, and understand it exaggeratedly, then we can come to the state shown in the cartoon “WALL · E” (WALL-E), where robots did absolutely any action for people.

It is clear what kind of world is waiting for us, if we are guided only by this idea. We get to the rejection of the physical body! As technology expands and is constantly evolving, at some point they can bring to the rejection of the human body, and it will not be necessary for absolutely nothing. And then there will be a loss of the human ... Maybe this is what Friedrich Nietzsche dreamed about when he wrote that the human must be overcome, and that man is just a bridge to the superman? I do not know. I imagine a superman to others.

This is a doer, a creator, tense and purposeful, who is helped by technology, and not replace it.

Even simpler creatures want some tension when they reach their goal. Experiments on rats showed that the animal does not always choose the shortest path to the goal. She chooses not the path that the experimenter prepared for her, but the path that she chose herself, even if it is not the most optimal one. For some reason, the living entity is trying to control itself.

It is difficult to discuss the happiness of a rat, but speaking of a person one can confidently say that the result obtained without effort does not please him. Successful overcoming the optimal level of difficulties brings feelings of self-realization and happiness.

It turns out that we must maintain a certain tone in the interaction of man with technology: something must be stress, complexity, but at the same time you need to help the user comfortably (with optimal expenditure of energy) to achieve their goals.

I have a joke on this subject: how to make the “most ergonomic” computer game? You need to create a large button, which will be written: "WIN". Click - the victory fanfare sounds! You won!!!

Only from the point of view of human psychology, this is complete nonsense. He also plays games to suffer, to overcome, to gain new experience, and not to win for free.

A good friend of mine prefers a manual gearbox in a car, although with an automatic gearbox the driver’s hands are more free, for example, in order to manipulate the smartphone screen when plotting a route. When I asked why she liked the mechanic more than an automaton, she answered: “I want to feel that I am driving the car, and not she by me!”

I was very surprised by this answer. After all, now a lot of attention is paid to the creation of autopilot vehicles and airplanes. One of the predictions published on behalf of the Pentagon, in the near future, the aircraft will take off and land under the control of robots. Automakers talk about new trucks that will transport goods without the participation of the driver. Google launches a taxi without a driver.

It seems that we are happy to transfer the work of technology in two cases: 1. If it is boring; 2. If it is unbearable (for example, processing too much data to make a difficult decision or converting a photograph we took into a Van Gogh picture).

But we leave some tasks to ourselves. Those that interest us. Those realizing that we feel alive. These thoughts lead me to the idea of ​​the importance of optimum motivation, which was discovered by zoopsychologists in experiments on rats.

Too simple and super complex tasks motivate poorly. From the first we fall into apathy, from the second - into a panic. But the tasks of the average (or, more correctly, optimal) complexity excite us, we enter a state of flow when we discover the intrinsic motivation of activity. When we do work not for the sake of its result, but for the sake of the process itself, bringing us clarity of mind, a sense of control and fullness of life.

Therefore, I agree with those who believe that the future belongs to technology. Undoubtedly, they will occupy more and more space in our lives, fulfilling for us what we don’t want or cannot do. But man will leave behind him the work that is harmonious to his capabilities. Otherwise, a person will have to lose himself and the meaning of his life.

- Do not lose yourself! Read a book and come to a lecture !