As we pointed out in our How to Use the Seven Deadly Sins To Turn Visitors Into Customers post, there is a great deal of psychology that goes into making a great website. Unfortunately, very few web designers and developers have much training in or knowledge of psychology. Dr. Susan Weinschenk from Human Factors International recently put together an absolutely phenomenal video illustrating the concepts that drive action on websites. She touches on many points we illustrate in our article on 7 deadly sins:
As a quick summary, here are the points:
- Too many choices — the number of choices effects people's purchasing behavior
- Social validation — peer reviews play a huge factor in purchasing
- Scarcity — items with limited availability seem to be more valuable
- Food, Sex and Danger — very powerful instinctual triggers for action
- Power of faces — our brains are predisposed to looking at faces
- Stories — brains process information best in story form
- Commitments — start asking people to make small commitments to your site which grow larger with time
