Evil by Design

How to make customers feel good about doing what you want

Learn how companies make us feel good about doing what they want. Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we’re susceptible to certain persuasive techniques. Packed with examples from every nook and cranny of the web, it provides easily digestible and applicable patterns for putting these design techniques to work. Organized by the seven deadly sins, it includes:

• Pride — use social proof to position your product in line with your visitors’ values
• Sloth — build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go
• Gluttony — escalate customers’ commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there
• Anger — understand the power of metaphysical arguments and anonymity
• Envy — create a culture of status around your product and feed aspirational desires
• Lust — turn desire into commitment by using emotion to defeat rational behavior
• Greed — keep customers engaged by reinforcing the behaviors you desire

Now you too can leverage human fallibility to create powerful persuasive interfaces that people will love to use — but will you use your new knowledge for good or evil? Learn more on the companion website, evilbydesign.info.

Chris Nodder is an independent consultant with 20 years' experience working with large organizations and lean startups to make user experience central to their business strategy. He was previously a director at the prestigious Nielsen Norman Group, and a senior user researcher at Microsoft. He has an MS in Human-Computer Interaction and a BS in Psychology.

"Better read this book before your neighbor goes and pulls a fast one on you. If this appeal to fear isn't enough, then maybe greed will do the trick: any website will make lots of money by following the guidelines in this book, even if you don't go all the way to become truly evil." -- Jakob Nielsen, author of Designing Web Usability and Mobile Usability "Illuminating, amusing, and a genuine page-turner....this book will give you insight into ways you have been tricked and, even better, give you the tools to persuade others either for evil or, if you really must, for good." -- Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group, mad scientist, and former Apple employee #66 How to make customers feel good about doing what you want Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we're susceptible to certain persuasive techniques. Packed with examples from every nook and cranny of the web, it provides easily digestible and applicable patterns for putting these design techniques to work. Organized by the seven deadly sins, it includes: Pride - use social proof to position your product in line with your visitors' values Sloth - build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go Gluttony - escalate customers' commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there Anger - understand the power of metaphysical arguments and anonymity Envy - create a culture of status around your product and feed aspirational desires Lust - turn desire into commitment by using emotion to defeat rational behavior Greed - keep customers engaged by reinforcing the behaviors you desire Now you too can leverage human fallibility to create powerful persuasive interfaces that people will love to use -- but will you use your new knowledge for good or evil? Learn more on the companion website, evilbydesign.info . "The seven sins are all around us, easy to spot. But the designs that apply the underlying behavioral forces that underpin the sins are harder to discern. That's why we need this book." -- From the foreword by Don Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things

"Better read this book before your neighbor goes and pulls a fast one on you. If this appeal to fear isn't enough, then maybe greed will do the trick: any website will make lots of money by following the guidelines in this book, even if you don't go all the way to become truly evil." Jakob Nielsen, author of Designing Web Usability and Mobile Usability "Illuminating, amusing, and a genuine page-turner....this book will give you insight into ways you have been tricked and, even better, give you the tools to persuade others either for evil or, if you really must, for good." Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group, mad scientist, and former Apple employee #66 How to make customers feel good about doing what you want Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we're susceptible to certain persuasive techniques. Packed with examples from every nook and cranny of the web, it provides easily digestible and applicable patterns for putting these design techniques to work. Organized by the seven deadly sins, it includes: Pride use social proof to position your product in line with your visitors' values Sloth build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go Gluttony escalate customers' commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there Anger understand the power of metaphysical arguments and anonymity Envy create a culture of status around your product and feed aspirational desires Lust turn desire into commitment by using emotion to defeat rational behavior Greed keep customers engaged by reinforcing the behaviors you desire Now you too can leverage human fallibility to create powerful persuasive interfaces that people will love to use but will you use your new knowledge for good or evil? Learn more on the companion website, evilbydesign.info . "The seven sins are all around us, easy to spot. But the designs that apply the underlying behavioral forces that underpin the sins are harder to discern. That's why we need this book." From the foreword by Don Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things

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