June 24th, 2009
Designing with Psychology in Mind (AEA slide deck)
by Joshua Porter | 
11 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/1237
I’ve just returned from speaking at An Event Apart Boston at which I gave a talk called Designing with Psychology in Mind. The event was top notch (as you may have heard) and I’m extremely honored to be among the distinguished speakers.
Thankfully, the conference coverage was excellent. Jeremy Keith wrote up a great set of notes (including notes for my talk). Two attendees created tweet tracker called A Feed Apart and another person created a great visualization called A Seat Apart. Yes, it was that kind of conference.
So here are my slides. I’ll probably give a similar talk going forward, so if you have any feedback I would love to hear.
Also, I have had several requests for a reading list…here it is.
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Comments
1. Jeremy Sullivan 9:29am, Wed 24th, 2009
As always, Josh, I am amazed by your deep level of passion and innovation in the design realm. Please keep up the great work. We NEED you out there in the trenches.
2. Dave Tufts 12:13pm, Wed 24th, 2009
Of all the AEA presentations, this one got me thinking the most.
Combining two of your points, maybe part of why Stanford’s prison experiment was so successful was because the environment of a prison is naturally designed for a single “locus of attention”. Plain walls, minimal furnishings, steady light… no visual distractions. Whatever role you might lean towards should be intensified because of the absence of distraction.
Another parallel I kept coming back to during your presentation was parenting — specifically a recent lecture I saw on “Simplicity Parenting” by child counselor/researcher Kim John Payne.
Though Payne doesn’t use the phase “locus of attention” he talks about simplifying a child’s environment to change behavior problems. Less toys, less food choice, less information, less media — to change behavior, design a better more focused and predictable environment.
Also, like your presentation, this parenting lecture touched on positive reinforcement, but knowing when to stop. The parent who is constantly “good job’ing” their kid is ignored. Gently guide kids (or web users) towards top of Maslow’s pyramid. Eventually they’ll do (or use) something because of the personal value, not because of the nice message from Tumblr or a “good job” from mom.
Sorry for ramble, but your talk definitely got me thinking a lot.
3. Josh 1:41pm, Wed 24th, 2009
@Jeremy…thanks for the comment! I will stay in the trenches.
4. Andres Burgos 2:58pm, Wed 24th, 2009
Awesome presentation Josh!
This was very motivating
I wish i was able to see this presentation live. Any chance, that we’ll be able to watch a video of this sometime in the future?
5. Josh 3:04pm, Wed 24th, 2009
@Dave…thanks for pushing this further…I like your combination of ideas (prison & locus of attention)…prison is certainly is a one-track kind of place, with extremely clear roles and duties.
Also, I was mulling over the relationship of simplicity & locus of attention. Could it be that this is what simplicity in software is? When software is our locus of attention and it keeps us focused on our activity, instead of making decisions or causing (or allowing) distractions from elsewhere…hmmm.
6. Joerg Linder 2:13pm, Sun 28th, 2009
Good presentation!
I was trying to reproduce tumblr’s behaviour (wanted to screenshot the encouraging messages), but I haven’t seen them. Could it be possible that tumblr changed the registration/first login – process?
I second Andres: A video would be awesome!
7. David Hopkins 7:58pm, Thu 2nd, 2009
I am not really much into psychology, but there are certainly some interesting points in your presentation. I didn’t put enough though into making my site, which is fine as I am still not 100% in the direction I want to go in. When I have made up my mind, I think your presentation will have given me some ideas of how to more thoroughly plan my site.
Your dissection of the A List Apart site was particularly useful.