Day 51 - Dark Patterns - "Sneak into Basket"

Not all design is good design.  Some websites and apps are downright deceitful the way the try to trick their users. Learn to recognize dark patterns but don't use them.

One dark pattern is called the "Sneak into basket" technique.
The sneak into basket approach is used in eCommerce when a user attempts to buy a specific item. Somewhere in the customer's purchasing workflow the site sneaks an additional item into their basket often through the use of an opt out button or check mark on the previous page or below the fold.

Some dark patterns such as "sneak into basket" are now even illegal in the UK.

When up-selling or cross-selling additional products, services, or features to your users, be open about it.

Day 50 - Usability Testing - Vendors vs. DIY

When recruiting interviewees for usability and research tests you can either partner with a vendor or do it yourself depending on the budget and scope of your project.

USING A VENDOR:

• Can save you time
• Be expensive
• Give you less control
• Leverage usability testing skills they may be better at
• Access to user and client relationships you don't have
• Provide blind testing

THE DO IT YOURSELF (DIY) APPROACH:

• More of your time
• Cheap
• More control
• You own the relationships
• Can be blind
• Learn about your users by doing your own recruiting

Day 49 - Web Design Tip - Above the Fold

"Above the fold" is originally a newspaper term describing the upper half of the front page where the most important stories and headlines of the day are located.

According to a Jakob Nielsen study on scrolling (in his book "Prioritizing Web Usability"), only 23% of the visitors in his study scrolled. Most people don't scroll down a page.

When designing your website, you generally should keep your primary call to action and succinct value proposition above the fold so users don't have to scroll down or work to find out what your site is basically about.

You only have a few seconds to pique and maintain someone's interest when they come to your site before they hit the back button and abandon the web page. Reduce this friction by showing them the value quickly the moment they hit the page and encourage them to take action.

Day 48 - Usability Testing - Getting Participants for Your Research

How would you go about finding people to interview for your research and usability testing of your prototype?

1. Have a tight deadline.  Lock the calendar date of when your user interviews will take place.
2. Create a screener questionnaire by defining your criteria, writing the questions and creating a Google Form. Also see Google Venture's worksheet for writing a screener.
3. Create a Craigslist Ad with a link to your form.
4. Offer payment or reward for participants.
5. Choose your interviewees carefully. Your ad and questionnaire should be used to vigorously filter out and disqualify candidates that don't meet your target user criteria.
6. Get NDA signed - Get their permission/signature to record the interviews. Also, "The ideas that come out of this, I own that".

Day 47 - User Behavior - Fogg's Behavior Model

BJ Fogg's Behavior Model illustrates how three ingredients must simultaneously come together in order for a user's behavior to occur.

1. Motivation - Pleasure/pain, hope/fear, social acceptance/rejection.
2. Ability - How proficient is the user in doing something. Is it easy to do, hard to do? These elements affect ability:  time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, non-routine.
3. Trigger - Triggers are a call to action that tell people to do it now.

Day 46 - Customer Journey Key Principles

1. Put your customers in control.
2. Let them explore before they commit.
3. Let users purchase as a guest. One time customers are especially appreciative of this.
4. Make it easy to finish on another device.
5. Take advantage of existing user information you already have to make conversion as easy as possible.

Read more about Customer Journey Tips.

Day 45 - 3 Content Strategy Rules of Thumb

1. Identify your objectives.
2. Think and write like your audience.
3. Be SEO friendly.