Crystal Blue Persuasion
The IA list has been all a-buzz with views and links surrounding “Persuasive Architecture/Navigation/Writing”, which I thought I’d summarize here.
The concept is pretty easy. It’s been used by advertisers, non profits, P.R. firms and any others who care enough about getting their message out to make their text, layout and design compelling enough to get the reader off the couch to “dial that phone number”, “sign that petition”, “send in that contribution” or whatever. At it’s core is telling people what you offer and framing it in a way that’s meaningful to them so they experience a desire to act.
Pretty funny, really. I’ve been espousing that if Web sites and such don’t meet the business goals, then it doesn’t matter if it meets the users goals, because that site isn’t going to last long for some time. It’s for this very reason that I started distributing my Site Goals Workbook free of charge and publishing the Better Sites newsletter (e-zine) to try to give tips on merging these two goal sets.
- Captology which is listed first due to my penchant for scholarly treatments of a subject
- “Influence: the Psychology of persuasion” by Robert Cialdini is a classic text on how this stuff gets driven by the human psyche
- Persuasive Navigation by: Jeff Lash Which has some marvelously practicle substance to it
- Business-centred design by: Henrik Olsen which somewhat summarizes the next 3 and then some
- How to Get Your Visitors to Take Action
- The Payoff of Planning Persuasive Architecture
- Qualified Answers to Persuasive Architecture