Guest Blog – Susan Weinschenk and Top 10 Attributes of a Usable and Persuasive Web Site

It’s my distinct pleasure to post this guest blog for you by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D., author of the book “Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?”

I’ve been an avid reader of Susan’s blog “What Makes Them Click” and Susan has graciously agreed to post one of her articles here.  I think you’ll enjoy this article, as well as find it very informative.

Susan is the Chief of User Experience Strategy for Human Factors International (HFI). Her clients call her, The Brain Lady, and that is also her Twitter name @thebrainlady.

Enjoy!

The Top 10 Attributes of a Usable and Persuasive Web Site

By Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.

Susan Weinschenk

Whether you spend a fair amount of time online, or you are responsible for the design or content of a web site or web application, the list below should be of interest to you.

What are the most important attributes of a web site that make it both usable and persuasive? Why do some web sites succeed in making us click while others result in abandonment?

1.The organization of the information at the website (the information architecture) fits the visitor’s mental model –

Is the website organized the way the visitor thinks? For example, if the visitor comes to a website looking up reviews of computer monitors is there a category called monitors? Or is the information on monitors part of the “Peripherals” category. Do the visitors really think of “peripherals” when they come to the site?

Web designers and content managers are often too close to their own information and need to make sure that the categories and organization of the web site match what most visitors have in their heads when they arrive at the site.

Usable and persuasive sites are designed for the visitor’s mental model.

2. Less is More –

Have you ever heard about the “magic number” 7 plus or minus 2?–the idea that people can remember or deal with between 5 to 9 things at time? Well, that’s a myth. Research shows that the real magic number is 3 or maybe 4.

Research shows that people can only deal with about 3-4 items of information at a time. Anything more than that they are not really seeing or paying attention to.  People will tell you they want more choices, but the research on decision-making is clear that too many choices means that we don’t choose at all.

Usable and persuasive sites provide 3 to 4 clear choices at a time.

3. The top third of the page, in the center, is “prime real estate” –

Where information is on the page does matter. The top third is the part of the page that people see first. Contrary to what some people say, the very top left is NOT the place people look first. The web has come to be much more of a TV model (top middle) than a book model (top left in countries that read left to right and top to bottom).

Smart designers pay attention to what is in this top third of the page. They make sure it is attention getting, meaningful, and speaks to the emotional/unconscious part of the brain, not just the logical /conscious part.

Usable and persuasive sites make good and careful use of the prime real estate.

4. Use visual and cognitive distinctions –

There is a lot going on at a typical web site page these days. There are images, and major category navigation bars. There are links to information about the company or individual who owns the site. There might be a place to go for help, a top banner with a shopping cart and a footer with more information. Then there is the main content on the page, and maybe there is advertising.

The list goes on and on.

In order to make sure the visitor knows where to look the site design has to use both visual and cognitive distinction.

Visual distinction means that a certain part of the screen uses different shapes, sizes, colors or fonts to look different.

For example a navigation bar has a green background, and a border around it. It is a rectangle and it is vertical. The top navigation bar on the other hand is horizontal, is on the top right of the page, is a set of links without a background color or a border. It looks visually different than the left navigation bar.

It’s not enough, though to use JUST visual distinction. The different parts of the page must also be cognitively distinct.

Cognitive distinction means that the items that are in different locations belong together with other items in that location, and are distinctly different than the items in other parts of the screen.

For example, the items in the green left navigation bar refer to different products I can buy. The items in the top right navigation bar without color are where I go to make changes to my account, get help, and ask for support.

Usable and persuasive sites use both visual and cognitive distinctions.

5. Engage all 3 brains –

In my book Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? I talk about the idea that we don’t have just one brain, we really have 3:

• The new brain is the logical/conscious brain
• The mid brain governs emotions
• The old brain is interested in scanning the environment and asking, “can I eat it?” “can I have sex with it?” “will it kill me?”

Engaging the old brain means that you are speaking to issues that are important to the basic self, such as food or security/danger or sex. Since most sites aren’t about food or sex, this leaves danger messages such as security, feeling safe, the idea that we are getting something for FREE or some other trigger that grabs the attention of the old brain.

Engaging the mid brain means that you are using photos or pictures or stories that talk to the emotional part of the visitor.

Engaging the new brain means that you have taken care of all the rational/logical reasons why someone would want to continue at your site.

Usable and persuasive sites engage all three brains.

6. Make text easy to scan –

In general, people don’t like to read online. Devices such as the Kindle are an exception, since they don’t use regular LCD screens. Most websites are still being viewed on regular laptops and monitors, and these are still hard use for blocks of text.

With some exceptions (for example, people who have subscribed to the NYTimes Reader software application), people will not read large blocks of text online. In place of these large blocks web sites should be concise, and use headings, bullets, and small paragraphs to break up text.

Usable and persuasive sites make text easy to scan.

7. Use progressive disclosure to show people what they need when they need it –

Lots of people come to a web site. Some know what they want, some are browsing. Some have lots of knowledge about what the site contains and some are new to the topic.

The best tactic therefore is to use “progressive disclosure.”

This means showing a small amount of information and then having the visitor click for more information. Then there is some more information and they can click again for more.

Have you heard that the user should be able to get to what they want in 3 clicks or less? That’s another myth! As long as the clicks make sense people are willing to “follow the scent” to get to their information.

Usable and persuasive sites use progressive disclosure.

8. Use grouping to show what things go together and limit clutter –

With all the information and pictures and videos and ads that are on screens these days it’s easy to forget that a screen can be visually overwhelming, especially to someone who is new to the page. There is a whole science behind designing screens and pages so that they use grouping to reduce clutter.

There can be a lot of material on the page as long as the things that go together are placed together, and that there is a little more space between separate groups than there is within items inside of a group.

Web sites that minimize the number of unique margins by lining up labels and fields and columns well can have lots of information and still not appear cluttered.

Usable and persuasive sites pay attention to the grouping of information and limit clutter.

9. Build in the features and functionality that make the site become a habit –

Research shows that over time people will tend to focus on one or two web sites for a particular task. For example, they will go to one or two websites for news, one or two web sites to shop, one or two web sites for entertainment. So what makes them choose to come back over and over to one or two sites and let the others fall away?

Sites that build in features that encourage use to be habitual are the winners, for example, e-commerce sites that make it easy to re-order (Staples), or offer one-click buying (Amazon). Or sites that aggregate all of your financial information together in one place (Mint) or allow you to not only send a twitter message but also monitor the twitters on particular topics (HootSuite).

There’s a limit here though. It’s not about having lots of features, it’s about having the one or two “can’t live without it” features that make the site become a habit.

Usable and persuasive sites choose and outperform in one or two killer features and functions.

10. Create a buzz in a specific market –

Don’t forget the power of social validation. I have a whole chapter on this in my book on “Neuro Web Design: What makes them click?”

People listen to what other people say, especially if they are uncertain about what to do.

So if there are 5 different sites that you can use to upload your photos, but one of those sites is talked about amongst your twitter group, is written about at the blogs you read, and advertises how many members they have, then that is the site you are most likely to check out and stick with.

Usable and persuasive sites know who they are aiming for, and do the marketing and publicity to make sure that have buzz among a certain cohort.

Conclusion: Top 10 Attributes of a Usable and Persuasive Web Site

So that’s the current top 10 list. Try evaluating your favorite websites against the list and let me know what you think. What sites do you use that match several of the items on the list?

If you liked this article check out Susan’s blog: www.whatmakesthemclick.net for more information about Neuro Web Design.

About the Author:

Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D., is the author of the popular blog “What Makes Them Click? Applying Psychology to Understand How We Think Work and Relate.”

Susan has a Ph.D. in Psychology and 30 years of experience as a usability, user experience, and human factors consultant for Fortune 500 companies. She is the author of several books in the field, and her most recent book, published by New Riders is, “Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?” She is Chief of User Experience Strategy for Human Factors International (HFI). Her clients call her, The Brain Lady, and that is also her Twitter name: @thebrainlady.

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Sometimes good usability decisions end up causing a bad user experience, case in point, Verizon

Jessica Lipnack had a user experience problem, she needed to get her User ID and Password to access her Verizon small business account online. Shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

Unfortunately for Jessica and the other Verizon small business customers, there’s a few user experience problems with the current customer service system that cause a major user experience issue.

And before I go on, let me give you my definition of usability and user experience.  In my mind, “usability” equals getting a task done, for example, can the user complete a task of using a password reset tool, yes or no?  “User experience” means the holistic experience a user has that encompasses entering a web site, finding information, synthesizing the information, conducting one or more tasks, and finally leaving, with an overall feeling of satisfaction (or not!) with the experience.

Now back to our tale of good usability going bad:

Jessica received a confusing Verizon customer service email with instructions on resetting a password from a  Verizon customer service representative which Jessica posted on her blog. You should read the whole thing (it’s not long, but it is confusing) to get the gist of all the bad user experience, I’ll just wait here and sip my coffee while you go over there and read it.

OK, back? I’ll quote a couple of interesting snippets:

“I have confirmed your user ID via a  separate secure email you confirmed you received. Though the user ID will display in all capital letters, both the user ID and password must be entered in lower case.”

Umm, what?

This I believe points to a case where a good usability decision was made by Verizon, that had a negative user experience repercussion.  Here’s why I’m thinking that is the case:

I’ve worked at major corporations like Prudential Insurance, Marsh & McLennan and WellPoint for many, many, many years, and I’ve been to tens of thousands of meetings about user experience aspects of online customer experience.  Never, NEVER, in a single meeting have I ever heard anyone ever say:

“So team, how can we confuse and piss-off our customers today?  Ideas?  Bob, get that doughnut out of your mouth and help us out here, okay?”

That never, ever happened.

Instead, meetings involve trying to get customers to their data.  So why did Verizon decide to send a User ID in all caps, even though the user MUST enter it all lower case?

Probably somewhere along the way a decision was reached based on system needs, yes, the data would be available, good for usability, but unfortunately for the end user experience the user would see all caps – bad for user experience.

But wait!  There’s more!  Another rather confusing snippet from Jessica’s email:

“Do not click the ‘Business’ tab, but instead, in the ‘Manage Your Account’ section in the upper right hand corner, do not select ‘My Business Account’ but select ‘Small Business Phone’. Otherwise you will be directed to the Verizon Wireless website, where your user ID and password for our site will not work. Do not change the default in ‘I want to…”

Oy Vey!

Always consider the entire user experience

Folks, what would happen if the CEO for Verizon, a nice guy named Ivan, received this email with all the: “Do Not, DO NOT, DO NOT!” An email of instructions with “Do not” all over it clearly shines a spotlight on a user experience that has significant problems.  Ivan I’m guessing would ask (yell at) his team to consider the entire user experience when making usability decisions.

Again, I’m confident the Verizon team is a bunch of smart, dedicated folks that want to help their customers out.  I know that for a fact because their E-Commerce team recently won an award for online customer service excellence.

No doubt the Verizon Small Business team made a series of good usability decisions, to enable their customers to have access to the information they want.  The problem is those series of good usability decisions were not consider in the overall context of the holistic user experience.

I’ve seen this time and time again, business units inside a company make usability tweaks so users can get access to pieces of data – but the holistic user experience suffers because added together, all the usability work-arounds and tweaks make for a bad user experience.  As is clearly demonstrated above.

What am i saying here?

When making usability decisions, always go back and review the ENTIRE user experience.

This includes something as obvious as a customer needing to get a User ID and Password in a small business section of a web site.  Consider the ramifications of the individual usability decisions in the larger context of the entire user experience.  By doing so, you’ll expose the “do nots” and realize that sometimes, a good usability decision can go bad, and lead to a bad user experience.

Considering the entire user experience when making your usability decisions will help all the Jessicas of the customer experience world have a better and more satisfying experience.

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Twitter’s all A-Flutter Over Nielsen’s Alertbox: Stop Password Masking

Jakob Nielsen, usability guru, doesn’t look to me like a big trouble maker. However, his latest Alertbox, “Stop Password Masking” proves he’s ready to come out punching.

He’s caused quite a stir amongst some Twitter users – who seem extremely polar, being either pro or con on the subject of password masking. But don’t take my word for it, here’s a few examples of pros and cons from Twitter:

Why All The Password Angst?

So why has Nielsen hit such an apparently tender topic with his recommendation to remove password masking? First, let’s see what he actually said the problem is, and why the solution is un-masking our hidden passwords:

“It’s time to show most passwords in clear text as users type them. Providing feedback and visualizing the system’s status have always been among the most basic usability principles. Showing undifferentiated bullets while users enter complex codes definitely fails to comply.

More importantly, there’s usually nobody looking over your shoulder when you log in to a website. It’s just you, sitting all alone in your office, suffering reduced usability to protect against a non-issue.”

Seems harmless enough, right? If you’re trying to type your passwords in before your morning coffee has really got you going, or on your tiny Palm Pre, is having the results of your fumbling fingers being un-masked (so you can see if you entered the correct string or not) such a bad thing?

Ahh, but what about that whole issue when you’re at your favorite coffee place and those strangers who are always peering over at your computer from the next table behind you are watching [shivers] – what about then? Here’s what Nielsen says:

“Yes, users are sometimes truly at risk of having bystanders spy on their passwords, such as when they’re using an Internet cafe. It’s therefore worth offering them a checkbox to have their passwords masked; for high-risk applications, such as bank accounts, you might even check this box by default. In cases where there’s a tension between security and usability, sometimes security should win.”

So, assuming all our Tweeps actually read the entire article from Nielsen (and we already know that most people on average only read about 20% of the words on a web page) why is there so much angst about removing something that is causing frustration and slower productivity?

I think it can be summed up in 5 general reasons:

5 Reasons Why We Don’t Like Changing Password Masking

1. We are creatures of habit – You and me, us humans, we like getting into routines and sticking with them. We brush our teeth with the same toothpaste every day, we go to work along the same route, and for some odd reason we always end up picking the longest queue when offered shorter or longer ones.

It’s a habit to type a password into a small box and be presented with masked characters in return. It goes against our grain to want to change this habit.

2. Change is frightening – For most of us, change is a rather frightening thing. When things change, it causes us a mild sense of cognitive dissonance. What’s that? We know we should should be doing this usual and customary thing, our brains tell us so, but now we aren’t doing that, we’re doing something different. That causes us to feel ill at ease.

For many of us change means re-wiring our brains to accept and use something new, something different, which takes work. We don’t like work (this kind of work anyway – if my boss is reading this, I LOVE work! Really!).

3. Using password masking, we have a false sense of security – Here’s what we think when entering our passwords in and being presented with a series of round black dots.

“Well, nobody can see my password, including me, so that means it’s secure and I don’t have to worry about somebody stealing my password so I’m safe.”

But meanwhile anyone watching over your shoulder, or from the cube next to you (don’t look around!) can probably pretty easily see the characters you’re typing, and pretty much be able to figure out your password. Personally, I think it’s worse with bank ATMs, they only need to watch you enter 4 digits!

And your security breach may be far worse. You have probably written down every single password you own, including the URL and account name for each and every “secure” login, on a non-encrypted file somewhere in your computer. Or worse, you’ve got your password on a post-it note somewhere near your monitor! How secure is that!?

4. We don’t understand the actual lost productivity – I know what you’re thinking, which is what I was thinking, which was:

“So what’s the big deal? So I have to retype my password sometimes, or have to contact someone because I forgot it, no big loss, right?”

Wrong!

According to the United States Navy, whom I trust to do their homework regarding lost productivity due to forgotten passwords;

“studies have indicated that approximately 40% of all help desk calls are for forgotten passwords.”

If you don’t believe the United States Navy, go do a search on Twitter for “password” and read all the thousands of tweets from tweeps who forgot, then sometimes found, their passwords for various logins. All that “lost my password, but now found it” stuff is lost productivity.

5. Businesses have a false sense of Control – For a business, often there’s a sense of “protecting users against themselves” by trying to manage certain processes or procedures for them. You can almost hear those in control say,

“I can manage your password and make sure you only get it if you do things I want you to do.”

This is why there sometimes are extra hoops to try to get through when obtaining a password that you forgot. In the bad old days, many times if you forgot your password the only way you could get one was to get a new password. Which of course forced you to have to write down your new password because you just knew you were going to forget it.

The Option of Seeing a Password

So here’s my take on the whole uproar issue, the people that are in an uproar may not have necessarily read the entire message.

What Nielsen actually said,

“It’s therefore worth offering them a checkbox to have their passwords masked; for high-risk applications, such as bank accounts, you might even check this box by default.”

That doesn’t seem as bad as letting everyone know your passwords by sticking them to your monitor, or putting every password and account number and URL in an unsecure file on your computer, now does it?

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Human Factors International Recently Published their “User Experience Maturity Survey 2009″ Report, and there’s good and bad news about usability – especially about usability champions

User Experience is Not Yet Mature, Based on the Lack of Usability Champions

Reading the User Experience Maturity Survey that HFI recently conducted is a lot like reading your 401k statement. Sure, the good news is you have money in there, but the bad news is it’s a lot less than you were hoping for. Likewise, the User Experience Maturity Survey has good news and bad news, most especially about Usability Champions.

Over 1,000 survey responses were received (1,123 to be exact) which is a nice surprise, as I didn’t realize there were so many companies out there with usability practitioners on-board who were willing to share their experiences in usability with the rest of the world. Hurray for us and for usability!

More good news! The majority of survey respondents reported that User Experience (aka UX) fit into their business for:

#1 – Building web sites (excellent, usability in websites is very important)
#2 – Creating Applications & Software (great, usability helps there too)

Conducting usability work on web sites and applications is like putting a nice warm fuzzy blanket around the web site and giving it the tender loving care it needs to truly be successful out there in the big cold world. Well, not really, but you get the idea.

Half of Us Don’t Have a Usability Champion

But now to the bad news, almost half (48% to be exact) of the survey respondents said their organization does not have a visible, committed Usability Champion supporting user experience design.

Let’s stop right there for a minute. Let’s you and me put down our Blackberrys for a second and focus.

Most of the people who responded to this survey are doing usability work, and they are doing usability work for important things like building websites and creating applications. But barely half have a usability champion! Why, that’s like NASCAR drivers without a Pit Crew! It’s like a horse race without Jockeys! It’s like your wedding without a piece of wedding cake you can mash into your Spouses face (even though you were warned NOT to do that).

Folks, without a usability champion it’s going to be very hard to have a clear and actionable usability practice that operates as one of the core business units for your company! You’ll be stuck doing last second usability testing as an after-thought on almost completed projects that someone is realizing only now is totally screwed up and needs some sort of help, any sort of help, for the life of your career at your company! That’s sad, it’s like having to live in Seattle and constantly be rained on.

Finding a Usability Champion

So, if you are one of those unlucky 48% of usability practitioners that don’t have a usability champion, or you live in Seattle, here’s 3 things you can do about that (um the usability part, for the Seattle part your on your own – just kidding all you Emerald City dwellers, I heart ‘ya and your City, especially the Space Needle, it’s cool):

1. Find a Usability Champion – Most marketing and sales VPs are looking for ways to get their bonus achieve their vision for making their ever increasing web site sales goals. If there was a way you could show them that by improving the usability of their eCommerce web site their sales would increase, then you would have an instant Usability Champion (and probably be invited to some of those cool “Marketing/Sales after work parties”). Try researching “usability roi case studies” on Google, you might come across some helpful ammo with which to approach your Marketing VP.

If you don’t have a sales or marketing VP (really? remind me again how your company sells things and makes money?) then you might have a Product or Product Development VP. Here to, if you can demonstrate that by improving the usability of the product more people will find the product easier to use, and that will help increase use (sales?) of the product, then you might have a new friend.

HINT: The product development VP is probably worried about getting their bonus achieving their vision based on delivering a product on time. You’re going to have to prove to a rather skeptical person that you won’t slow him or her down in getting that product out the door while conducting usability work. I provided some hints on how to do faster usability testing which might come in handy here.

2. Become a Usability Champion – Nature abhors a vacuum (so do I when my wife tells me it’s time to vacuum the stairs!) so here’s a chance for you to step in and fill that usability void. Push hard for usability projects to anyone who’ll listen (at your company, your mom already knows you’re the best usability person in the whole wide world – whatever the heck “usability” is).

If you’re brave, you might actually conduct your own usability evaluation of your web site or product and provide an executive summary to some well placed VPs – just for reading material the next time they have to fly somewhere. Try to make friends with the coders and developers of the web site or application and see if they’ll become “usability friendly” – try taking them to lunch, that might help.

Also, read the post I wrote on the 7 enterprise usability tips for ways you can apply usability projects beyond just a web site, if that avenue is closed to you. There’s lots of potential usability projects lurking at your Company, in many different divisions. Consider IVR messages, customer service web sites or applications or even internal applications that all employees have to use.

The point here is perception is reality, and if all you do is talk about usability and how it helps increase sales or interactions or whatever, eventually people will believe you are the Usability guru and champion.

By the way, it’s important that you are a usability Champion that can actually get usability projects approved. Being a usability champion without the authority to use the company pen to sign a company check to pay for a usability project means you don’t have the authority to make usability projects happen, and thus you’re probably not a usability champion. Some of your co-workers in your office might be calling you just a “usability nut,” the mean ones a “usability chump-ion” (ouch).

3. Leave the Company – Guess what? Sometimes an old, non usability friendly door must close before a new, usability friendly door can open. If the corporate culture is dragging you down, and you’ve tried everything you can (see numbers 1 and 2 above) to get a usability champion at your company, it might be time to leave and find a company that does have a usability champion.

Don’t think of it as failing, being a quitter or throwing in the towel. Think of it as your company is not able to incorporate usability as a part of it’s core function, and thus you must find a better environment where you can make a difference practicing usability. Those losers.

According to USNews & World Report, you, yes you, as a usability experience specialist are in one of the Best Careers of 2009. If your current lame unresponsive dimwitted ignorant company doesn’t truly value and support usability, more than likely there’s another company out there who will.

So dust off your resume, dry-clean your interview suit, shine up those shoes and hit the pavement you usability experience specialist you! You’ve got a whole new exciting opportunity just WAITING for you to get started! What are you waiting for? There’s a better opportunity for you and all you have to do is take that first step!

Conclusion – User Experience is Not Mature, Especially without a Usability Champion

According the results of HFI’s recent “Usability Experience Maturity Survey 2009” almost half of those of us who completed the survey are without a usability champion. Without a usability champion at your company it’s going to be very difficult to achieve usability maturity, and include usability as a core attribute of your company’s operations.

If you’re not comfortable trying to accomplish usability without a usability champion, you can either find one in your organization, become one, or worst case leave the organization and join one that does have a usability champion.

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Fortune names BJ Fogg one of the next generation of management gurus.

In what should be considered earth-shaking news for usability practitioners everywhere, one of the most remarkable researchers of human computer interaction has been labeled a “next generation management guru” by Fortune magazine.

Why is this big news? Because BJ Fogg’s research has been required reading for any serious usability practitioner for years, and his research into the use of persuasive technologies directly impacts usability and how best practices are applied on web sites, and now on mobile devices such as cell phones. I can’t help but feel that if the Fortune magazine readers, business kings and queens of industry and part of the establishment, are now paying attention to someone we usability practitioners pay attention to, then that’s a clear indication that usability and the art of persuasion using technology will get even more serious attention from businesses in the near future.

But, I hear you thinking, “Well, that’s all fine for BJ Fogg, but what does that have to do with me? I’m just a regular usability practitioner, ya’ know?”

Ahhh, but it DOES have to do with you!

First, it can’t hurt to refresh your memory on some of the more critical findings Fogg and team have identified from a usability best-practices perspective. I’ve listed a few of my favorite studies below, please feel free to add yours if they’re not there.

Second, by taking this information and using it to persuade your business leaders or clients that Fortune is really on to something here, you can maybe, just maybe, get more attention on your usability projects than you used to, and might, just might, find yourself with a host of new usability projects!

So, here’s a few suggestions just off the top of my mind for how to make this news help you promote usability in your organization. Collect them, trade them or even better, add your own ideas or suggestions!

1. Be sure to forward the Fortune article to your boss or clients, and any marketing folks you may know. Nothing gets attention from business leaders faster than a mention in a well respected publication such as Fortune, or Business Week, or the NY Times, etc.

2. Brush up on BJ Fogg and the research his lab is working on. Do visit the Stanford Persuasive Technology lab website and read every page carefully, perhaps twice. There’s plenty of information there and it can’t hurt to brush up on not only the past research, but the latest Facebook and cell phone research they’ve been working on too.

3. It couldn’t hurt to spend time reading BJ Fogg’s book, “Persuasive Technology, Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do” if you’ve got some down time.

4. It also wouldn’t hurt to read his latest book, for which he was editor and co-author by the way on “Mobile Persuasion, 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change.” And in my opinion this is mandatory reading if you work in the Telecom industry by the way.

5. Wanna really impress your boss and/or co-workers? Give one of the above books to them as a Hanukkah or Christmas gift. Well, ok, maybe not. But it couldn’t hurt if they express some interest in the subject I guess! While you’re figuring out what to get your boss or co-workers for a gift, you might as well drop by BJ Fogg’s personal website and see what’s up with the latest Management Guru.

Smart companies have already figured out that humans use computers and websites to buy their products. Really smart companies have figured out that they a vested interest in making sure they do the best job they possibly can to provide a user-friendly experience for users who are using the company’s website to shop for products. With the advent of eCommerce on cell phones (did you know, by the way, that you can check in for your flight on American Airlines using nothing but your cell phone – no boarding pass print-out required?) it’s earth-shaking for us usability practitioners.

Here’s a few of my favorite BJ Fogg and team websites and studies. Please feel free to add yours if you don’t see it listed here:

Mobile Persuasion – Changing people’s beliefs and behaviors with mobile technology.

Stanford Facebook Class – Understanding the psychology of Facebook, and how applications and developers morph and in turn are morphed by users.

BJ Fogg’s Website – Just in case you missed the link above. Find out what BJ Fogg is up to, see his email and phone number, feel free to call him, but don’t expect him to answer your call, at least not right away.

BJ Fogg & Team Blog – Captology Notebook blog.

Stanford Web Creditibility Project Publications – Your one-stop shop for a listing of Stanford creditibility papers.

Prominence-interpretation theory: Explaining how people assess credibility online. Proceedings of CHI’03, Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 722-723. (2003)
Abstract – Four years of research has led to a theory that describes how people assess the credibility of Web sites. This theory proposes that users notice and interpret various Web site elements to arrive at an overall credibility assessment. Although preliminary, this theory explains previous research results and suggests directions for future studies.
ACM Digital Library or the Persuasive Technology Lab Report

How do users evaluate the credibility of Web sites? A study with over 2,500 participants. Proceedings of DUX2003, Designing for User Experiences Conference. (2003)
Abstract – In this study 2,684 people evaluated the credibility of two live Web sites on a similar topic (such as health sites). We gathered the comments people wrote about each site’s credibility and analyzed the comments to find out what features of a web site get noticed when people evaluate credibility. We found that the design look of the site was mentioned most frequently, being present in 46.1% of the comments. Next most common were comments about information structure and information focus. In this paper we share sample participant comments in the top 18 areas that people noticed when evaluating Web site credibility. We discuss reasons for the prominence of design look, point out how future studies can build on what we have learned in this new line of research, and outline six design implications for human-computer interaction professionals.
ACM Digital Library or the Expanded Consumer WebWatch Report

Experts vs. online consumers: A comparative credibility study of health and finance Web sites. Consumer WebWatch Research Report. (2002)
Abstract – Consumers are faced with important decisions about the information sources that they choose to believe for making important health or financial decisions. Do these everyday people know which Web sites are really credible, especially in vital areas such as finance and health? What do industry experts say about the credibility of sites in their fields? And, finally, how do the experts’ assessments compare to how the average person decides which sites to trust? To answer these credibility-related questions, Sliced Bread Design and Consumer Reports WebWatch produced this expert study, titled Experts vs. Online Consumers: A Comparative Credibility Study of Health and Finance Web Sites, in collaboration with Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab (Stanford PTL).
Consumer Reports WebWatch Report

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