Psychology and Web Design

How much research has been done on the psychological side of user interface and web design, and how it relates to engagement and revenue generation. I was wondering about the tricks the big sites use on us, and how to use them to my own advantage.

A whole fuarrrking lot i assume. Not directly psychology but google optimized their link colors in the browser so color blind can see better. I think its safe to say psychology and ui design is widely used.

>>10061 Any hints on what to search to find such research?

>>10062 Nope, sorry, should be plenty around by now i think.

I think OP and the other Lain here might be talking past each other. We know that big data has done this research but has anyone done similar research but with the intent of fighting back. Obviously big data isn't sharing its intelligence.

a lot has been done, I cannot remember the subject, but facebook and other social media hire experts who effectively learn to manipulate the emotions of users, there was an advocate talking about how he hated the emotionless teachers who advocated covertly manipulating people for profit, and not notifying users that the content they were exposed to was designed to create addiction. maybe you could start there

found it, it looks like the theme is known as "DESIGN ETHICS" http://www.tristanharris.com/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/marketplace-phones-1.4384876 >Named after the brain molecule that gives us pleasure, Dopamine Labs uses computer coding to influence behaviour — most importantly, to compel people to spend more time with an app and to keep coming back for more. >Co-founder Ramsay Brown, who studied neuroscience at the University of Southern California, says it's all built into the design. >"We're really living in this new era that we're not just designing software anymore, we're designing minds."

Plenty. I mean, really plenty. Facebook did some public research and some private ones, some of which being just on correlation side something that sticked out the most is the fact that I heard that they found correlation between preferring pepsi over cola in people with mental illnesses Of course, there are the public ones, most of which are already being used and ABUSED but hey, it's all par of the evolutionary course. Adapt being the main goal of the game.

>>10068 Any links to this research? It seems really interesting. >>10066 I assume most of this is turning into pushing profitable and political views?

The more I read about this stuff the more I feel like I just realized I've been inside the matrix this whole time. It's freaky as hell and cool as hell and I can't wait to learn more.

>>10064 How would you proposeto fight back? Some adblock filters or do you have something else in mind?

>Some adblock filters or do you have something else in mind? NIGGA YOU DONT UNDERSTAND the techniques used to induce a psychological NEED for social media are integrated by design. ethics professionals are there to say when the psychological aspects cross a severe moral line, but when profit is being made, who cares. several studies proved that facebook can control peoples emotions and activities, but they dont want that to be widely known, because of the implications such as YOU CAN ACTUALLY INFLUENCE ELECTIONS and YOU CAN MAKE PEOPLE DO THINGS THEY KNOW ARE UNETHICAL. think of the Stanley milgram experiments about compliance, then think about how social media can force compliance. Facebook deliberately wrote broken code into their app so it would crash, and surprisingly NOBODY stopped using the app no matter how broken it was, because of the design the only solution is to never use websites that encourage a psychological need in the first place

>>10081 Oh I understend and thats why I asked the question. >>10064 was wondering have there been research done that describe the technics used by web designers so the users can protect them self from harmfull influance. But I think the tricks (at least part of them) used by web designers aren't really secret (and thats why I ask about what are his ideas to protect yourself from them). The most popular I think is the LIKE button and the infinity scrolling website. Some people crave to receive a lot of "likes" under there posts so somekind of filter that prevents the web browser from displaying information about how many "likes" they received under there post might be a small step in preventing addictions from social media. Again infinity scrolling webpages could be fought by the web browser that makes you click the "next page" button from time to time (in a sense that some "filter" translates a infinity scrolling website to a page where you have to click next button and can monitor how far have you gone down the website). Please keep in mind that this isn't the problem of only social media sites but all webpages can implement some kind of tricks to manipulate you in a different way (most often make you addicted in some way from there content). Not using a "website that encurage a psychological need in the first place" isn't really a solution if ALL websites will encurage a psychological need of some kind. Thats why I'm interested in >>10064 ideas for fighting back.

>>10078 That other Lain >>10081 wasn't me though we aren't far apart in theory either. I guess I was thinking of some kind of resistance on a mass scale if it were possible, not just my own browser. I have no idea what that would be though.

The truly terrifying thing is that most of these (at least the basic) techniques appeared organically in imageboards.

>>10087 And what techniques are you specifically refering to?

>>10060 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human–computer_interaction Research is typically published at the ACM CHI conference.

>>10062 Search engine "the economy of time" and start from there.

>>10094 Variable rewards encourage you to keep checking for new posts, getting replies could be seen as getting likes. Fear of Missing Something Important is a big part as well, and the entire thing is built on social reciprocity >>10164 http://www.heartfield.org/economy.pdf This? I fail to see the relation after reading it.

>>10176 >getting replies could be seen as getting likes Ok, but without a option to reply we counldn't have a conversation. You would write sentences into the void and a website would change into a blog without a option to comment or a zine. I think we shouldn't be scared of this feature of imageboards. Taking this to the extreame I also shouldn't talk to people in real life because if they will answer me then this would only encourage me to keep up the conversation.

>>10179 No I'm not saying it is a bad thing, I'm saying it is one of the reasons imageboards are so gripping and people have a hard time quitting them. This element of having a conversation and being recognized for it is the psychological tool things like Facebook exploits while imageboards come to it organically.

>>10060 If anything there is too much research. What you are talking about isn't really a single discipline. Behaviorists might be interested in the effects of subscription/follower models or points systems on the individual, a Gestalt psychologist might be interested in the effects of placement of UI elements in different locations, someone in group dynamics might be interested in how anonymity factor into group behaviour or how manipulating respected individuals can change a whole society, even non-psychological realms such as the meaning of color to specific cultures is significant. Beyond knowledge even there are tons of huerestics in the form of ML where we don't even really understand how we are getting the effects we are, so it's not even really reasonable to attempt to understand without access to the actual models. I've read plenty on group psychology and I can recomend books here but I've just gotten into Behaviourism and I havent even looked at Gestalt really yet. Here are the books and articles I've reference in my group psychology summary that's floating around, I've put ** on the ones I'd suggest: [1] Deindividuation and Antinormative Behavior: A Meta-Analysis** [2] Propoganda [3] Resolving Social Conflicts Selected Papers on Group Dynamics [4] The Crowd a Study of the Popular Mind** [5] The Formation of Social Norms: Revisiting Sherif's Autokinetic Illusion Study [6] The Psychology of Social Norms**

>>10196 >so it's not even really reasonable to attempt to understand without access to the actual models I meant this as only relating to ML, all other methods are knowable. Sorry for the strange writting.

Apparently companies like Facebook spend a considerable amount of ressources studying the cognitive effects of different colors on smartphone screens, enough for people to have requested and be swearing by their monochrome mode for their smartphone model (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-phone.html). It makes sense, evolutionarily attention is diverted towards bright colors. Colors like RED typically signal DANGER, so we dedicate some of our awareness to wherever the color originates from. I have no sources, but if I remember correctly, Facebook specifically also studies which colors induce what moods and designs their apps to put us in a fitting mood that keeps us active longer. needless to say, fuarrrk facebook

>>10060 >How much research? A lot. A few keywords -website heatmaps -UI -UX -A/B testing -F scan reading Broadly falls under Operations Research, Big Data, Cybernetics, etc.

https://darkpatterns.org/