The Art and Science of Seductive Interactions

A lot of people have web sites these days. A lot of people, including businesses, have web sites where no one interacts or feels the need to come back.

That’s where Stephen Anderson comes in.

Anderson, a web design consultant, has created a panel called The Art and Science of Seductive Interactions for the 2010 SXSWi Festival in Austin. He believes there are strong ties between human functions, like psychology and the dating process, and how web sites should be built.

“What I found while working on several products was a real lack of attention paid to how we get people up and going with an application,” Anderson said, “essentially, how we ‘get to first base’ with our users.”

Anderson made a big discovery while examining web sites he felt “got to first base” with their audiences.

“What I found were a bunch of principles from psychology - pattern recognition, curiosity, points, challenges, feedback loops - that are carefully applied to a web context,” he said.

Now Anderson is using that knowledge to design systems and web sites that help people interact.

“For years, retail stores have studied how things like larger dressing rooms or more spacious aisles can affect mood, social interactions and purchasing habits,” Anderson said. “We're starting to do the same with web interfaces. We are learning how altering things like the layout or language can affect usage behaviors.”

Anderson believes web sites like MacHeist and Dopplr are leading the way in applying human psychology to web design. He also gives credit to the registration process at iLike, a social media music service.

“What's noteworthy about (iLike) is how much fun they make it for me to share more of my musical preferences with them,” Anderson said. “It's a win-win for the business and user.”

Anderson believes this philosophy of web psychology also applies to blogs or Twitter, where communicating with an audience creates attraction and interest.

“The more we understand how people make choices, what gets our attention, what motivates or de-motivates us and so on,” Anderson said, “the better we can be as web designers.”