DAYTONA COMMUNICATION ABRiddargatan 17D, 114 57 Stockholm, SwedenPhone +46 8 579 397 50, Fax +46 8 579 397 55www.daytona.se, info@daytona.se

talk at iot meetup december 2013

Taking responsibility for the things we unleash into the world

1

”Manipulation is deceptive. Design should be supportive.

Theoretically, the two are separated by intention.

But in practise, the forces are converging. Fundamentally, it’s about taking

responsibility

for the things we unleash into the world.”

Jon Kolko

A lot has been written lately about how evil design patterns are used more often (darkpatterns.org)

LG Smart TV – Button That Doesn’t Do AnythingTransmits details about what you’re watching and names of private media files stored on removable USB volumes.

If you look closely there is an opt out button – but that button does not do anything. Even though the user opts out the TV still transmits the information, so that LG can sell target advertising ...

Lensway – Tricks You To Participate in Marketing Surveys

To be able to shop you need to tick the checkbox for terms and agreements. Hidden in that text is a part about agreeing to participate in marketing surveys. This is not what the user expects to find in a terms and agreement text, so most people would surely not even notice this.

E-reader Letto – Buy From One Store Only, No More Borrowing BooksEasy to buy books from Adlibris, but not from anywhere else. Makes you more or less tied to the one store.

Also: you can no longer borrow books within your own family if you have different devices.

Netflix – Trick for Continuity

Ask for you billing info when signing up for free trial. You need to remember to cancel in time, or they will charge you.

Isn’t this just bad usability? Nah, probably not.

Jakob Nielsen

An interface can be frustrating or hard to use without being manipulative.

Jakob Nielsen

Visibility of system status

Match between system and the real world

User control and freedom

Consistency and standards

Error prevention

Recognition rather than recall

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Help and documentation

Bad usability: Update and Cancel Buttons too close Bad usability:

No systems status

So what about persuasion techniques like social proof? Or scarcity? Good or evil?

When you design something you always influence

the user. Some things you make bigger and more visible so other things end up less visible.

You also put a lot of effort into making some things easy to understand which means other things have to become more difficult, to make room for the most important features.

In design you need to balance

between simplicity and to fit everything important in.

Beddit – Measures How You Sleep

Does measuring your sleep really help? Doesn’t it just make you more stressed out?

FitBits – Measures How You Move

Does it work? Do you get healthier in a good way? And is it okay to use manipulative techniques to make people work out more?

In this big trend of quantification we need to think about what we measure

and how it will

affect us.

Chris Nodder

”Just because persuasive practices can be used for deception, and just because deception

can be used to do bad things doesn’t mean that

persuasive techniques are necessarily bad in their own right.”

The Fake Bus Stop – Manipulative And Good?A nursing home for Alzheimer patients. Problem: Alzheimer patients have a tendency to run away, so they get locked up and drugged at many nursing homes.

New solution: deceive the patient! Fake bus stop where the runaways can wait for the bus “home”. After waiting for a while, the patient calms down, the caretaker can try to coax the patient back in ...Clearly manipulative – but with a good purpose.

Monster Go Away Spray – Manipulative And Good?Parents with kids afraid of monsters can get this lavender scented spray to chase away monsters. You trick the kids, but for a good cause. Or?

How should we think about this? Is it OK

to manipulate and deceive if you

have a good purpose? Can you even be

sure you have a good purpose?

Apple Store – Persuasive But Not Deceitful

They present something I didn’t ask for, but probably would like. Easy to skip. Default set to none (no sneaking into baskets!).

Most innovators and designers have good intentions and want to do good – to create a better world and solve problems. The time has come to make a decision about the future: What type of design should we do?

When money is involved people will try to make more money in doubtful ways. Focus can easily shift from making useful products to increasing conversion rates, lower production costs and producing and inventing as fast as possible.

When we focus on numbers (such as conversion rates) and want to satisfy our stakeholders we can fall for quick manipulative solutions by mistake, especially when the numbers show that it’s the right way to go.

The stress of having to produce as quickly as possible can give you tunnel vision and reduced empathy. That can make you forget who the users really are and that your product will actually manipulate the people who use it.

To stay an honorable field, we must ask ourselves how evil we can be before it’s gone too far – so we don’t fall for those easy quick manipulative fixes,

at least not by mistake.

What’s wrong with short-term solutions anyway?

Social media: trick your customers and they will tell all of their friends – fast!

Employer branding: nobody, who has the choice, want to work for an evil company.

Individual level: most of us feel like crap when we lie or are dishonest. Most of us want to add value through our work, and want to feel proud of what we do.

To sum things up ...

Good design is persuasive per se, but there’s a difference between persuasion and manipulation. Is it okay to manipulate when it’s for people’s own good?

It’s up to you, you need to think about what’s okay and what’s not and how you want to use your knowledge.

Ask yourself: is your design useful? Is it under-standable? Is it ethical?

Is my design ethical?How can we answer that question?

If something feels bad, that’s an indicator

that something’s not right.

Your personal opinion matters!

We’ve learned to talk about money and metrics,

we can learn to talk about

ethics.Bring it to the agenda!

SUPERPOWERSI HAS THEM

Remember: what you unleash into this world has implications for other people and you need

to take responsibility for it.

You can choose to deceive others or to help them.

Use your superpowers to do good!

Linda Mattssonlinda.mattsson@daytona.se@lanende

Sharon Lindbergsharon.lindberg@daytona.se@sharonlindberg

ImagesLG Smart TV: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LG_smart_TV.jpg

Ryanair-images: Darkpatterns.org

E-reader: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06/4069260433/

Jakob Nielsen: http://www.nngroup.com/people-jakob-nielsen-photos/

Beddit: http://www.beddit.com/static/img/white-sensor-on-bed.jpg

Fitbits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umhealthsystem/11355640094/

Old man: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_man_on_a_bench,_Santiago.jpg

Monster: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4a7e9yijNJK6L1cYP3oe6w

Good & evil sheep: http://s899.photobucket.com/user/zodmafa/media/goodvsevilsheepDS.jpg.html