Hi Jared, Thanks for the kind wishes! I read that to mean that you equated direct control to influencing behavior. > When you get a chance, can you explain the difference?
To be honest this is a gray line, but here are my thoughts. When you influence someone's behavior there is always the choice available to do the unexpected, or undesirable. You can place the up selling section in the most optimal position on an e-commerce site, but the customer can always choose to ignore it. Control is simply the absence of that choice. I always use supermarkets in the US as an example of controlling their customers behavior. On average, the most common thing people want when going to a supermarket is milk. The managers know this, and put it as far away as possible from the entrance, forcing customer to walk past other products. Customer just don't have the choice to by-pass other products, and their path is controlled by the store (to a certain extent). Can you give an example of when designers take that choice away? I'm still > not seeing the difference clearly to understand what the debate is The one off the top of my head is the above supermarket one. Another would be what Sony did a few years with the Rootkit scandal. Someone made the decision to have this get installed on customer's computers without letting them know about it or opting in or out of its installation. There was no influencing going on here, just wrong doing(in my opinion) Thanks! Brad On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 12:44 AM, Jared Spool <jsp...@uie.com> wrote: > > On Jul 29, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Brad Nunnally wrote: > > Sorry for my lack if responses, currently adjusting to my new life as a > father and learning how to manage my time. I gave been following, just not > able to respond as much as I wish. > > > Perfectly reasonable choice. Family stuff trumps IxDA discussion list > participation in my book anytime. Congrats to everyone! > > I don't see any moral issues when it comes to influencing a persons > behavior. Simple because at the end of the day the person can always choose > to do something different. > > > In the Johnny Holland article, you said: > > It appears that we have painted ourselves into a corner. Having direct > control over another person’s behavior is wrong, as they did with the > watchclock. But, we can’t help influencing a person’s behavior with the > interactions we design. > > > I read that to mean that you equated direct control to influencing > behavior. When you get a chance, can you explain the difference? > > It is when we as designers take that choice away I see an issue. The real > debate defing the line that seperates influence and control and what types > of influence seem to push the envelope on "right" or "wrong". > > > Can you give an example of when designers take that choice away? I'm still > not seeing the difference clearly to understand what the debate is. > > Jared > > Jared M. Spool > User Interface Engineering > 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 > e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561 > http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: @jmspool > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
