Looplite

Avoiding Trade-offs in a Persuasion Window

Recently I’ve been following a debate kicked off by Don Norman on the value (or lack of value) in simple design [Simplicity is Highly Overrated]. Today a post called Simplicity: The Ultimate Sophistication by Joshua Porter at User interface Engineering (UIE) caught my attention.

Talking trade-offs

Porter talks about trade-offs. Situations where customers are presented with two similar items but where one is more feature laiden than the other, and as a result costs more. For example two cars, one with an MP3 player the other without. The potential customer is faced with a choice, a dilemma. Are the extra features worth the money? A trade-off can be made – pay less money, get less features. Both cars can get me from A to B, but how much more enjoyable would it be if I could plug in my iPod and listen to my latest sounds?

Quoting from The Paradox of Choice, Porter notes that “researchers concluded that being forced to confront trade-offs in making decisions makes people unhappy and indecisive…”. He adds ’..simplicity goes beyond the interface of the product to the decision process surrounding it. We want simple decisions as much as simple products’.

Timing is everything

If we understand Persuasion Windows as being the right place and time to persuade, where the customer is most receptive, then we should avoid trade-offs at these times. The Stanford Captology Lab has already identified six key situations when you are most likely to be persuade, one of these is when you are in a good mood. Exactly the opposite of the emotions created when faced with a trade-off.

For more on Persuasion Windows

[I’ll be exploring Persuasion Windows more in the months to come as I develop the concept. If you’re interested listen to my presentation Persuasive Solutions for Demanding Times available for download from my Loopstatic blog. The next cScape newsletter will also be dedicated to the practice of Online Persuasion so sign up if your interested]