Comments on: The behavior you’re seeing is the behavior you’ve designed for

By: TechKive » Blog Archive » The behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:23:05 +0000

[...] here to read the rest: The behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for Share and [...]

By: Content & design a great couple | USiT

Content & design a great couple | USiT — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:01:47 +0000

[...] week Josua Porter posted a thought provoking post The behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for. It suggested looking at existing designs for the cause of unwanted user behaviour. This made sense [...]

By: Steve Baty

Steve Baty — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:22:02 +0000

Josh,

Nice post and, as always, an interesting insight into the personal side of interaction design and designing for behaviour.

One of the critical points for me coming through in the discussion is the definition of ‘design’ in fairly narrow terms. I think if we view the Web application as a service, or a particular touchpoint of that service, then we can recognise elements like pricing, terms of trade and product features as being encompassed by the ‘design’.

Using an holistic notion of design – in either a service design or customer (in this instance) experience design sense – may help to resolve such criticism of your central point.

Steve.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:36:06 +0000

I agree with 11. The idea that the behaviour mirrors the design betrays a ridiculous belief in the power of that design. I’m a designer, but even I don’t think that (for example) if customers leave my site then factors like uncompetitive pricing, restrictive terms or unacceptable product propositions have nothing to do with it. If you really think that then you really need to climb out of your rear end!

By: Hari Rajagopal

Hari Rajagopal — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:24:59 +0000

So if I look at
Design = Content + Presentation,
it all makes sense, whether it is a web site or a person, this is true.
Your idea that “the behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for.” applies equally to web sites and people.
I am now thinking, this truth applies to any creation, heck, even if I am hosting a dinner party, this is true.

By: Jason Grant

Jason Grant — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:23:25 +0000

I agree that content is an incredibly important aspect of any web presence. Weak content will mean weak User Experience no matter what.

By: Daily Links for Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Daily Links for Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:38:19 +0000

[...] The behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for – Bokardo [...]

By: Weekly links for 29th July | USiT

Weekly links for 29th July | USiT — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:52:02 +0000

[...] The behavior youâ€™re seeing is the behavior youâ€™ve designed for “Itâ€™s a simple statement, really. All it means is that what is happening on your web site or in your web application is a result of the current design youâ€™ve created.” -Interesting discussion in the comments too about whether content is seperate to design & which is responsible for behavior [...]

By: Living, Breathing Design «

Living, Breathing Design « — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:31:37 +0000

[...] it was interesting to read Joshua Porters post “The behaviour you’re seeing is the behaviour you’ve designed for“. And whilst this is very much the designers view of the world – content doesn’t [...]

By: David

David — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:58:57 +0000

Really? This seems too product-centric . People don’t live in our products.
Isn’t the “interface” for a product more than screens? Interface, more abstractly, includes the social context that the user lives in – things like ‘culture’. Think about doctors in hospitals who refuse to use new medical technology because it requires “menial” data entry tasks. Is this really the result of the product design? (You could argue yes… that designers should should have accounted for this). But the rejection of menial data entry tasks is also an existing cultural behavior of doctors.
-David

By: Jon Dale

Jon Dale — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:03:25 +0000

The biggest take-away I got from this, is that throughout an organization â€” both internal and a client â€” we need to have users’ behaviors at the forefront of our minds.

I’m a designer/developer and often get asked to “design something”, and the more you start to ask questions and unpack the initial request, there is often a lack of definition of exactly what behaviors we’re expecting our visitors to exhibit.

The main challenge I find, is not only educating myself, but then educating (convincing) everyone else so that it can happen.

By: Jack Christopher

Jack Christopher — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:43:45 +0000

You see what you measure.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:50:58 +0000

@Dale…right on! It does apply to life…will have to mull that one over for a while…

By: Dave McFarland

Dave McFarland — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:05:42 +0000

Sounds good, but how do we go about measuring behavior? Web analytics, one-on-one observation, eye-tracking apps, all of the above, or something else?

By: Dale Cruse

Dale Cruse — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:04:23 +0000

Josh, this is an excellent point – one that I made note of during your An Event Apart presentation.

I think it’s a great truth because it doesn’t apply just to websites – it applies to life. If there’s a problem in your life like not having a spouse or a job or money, it’s often because that’s the behavior you designed for in your life!