Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? [Paperback]

Susan Weinschenk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321603605 | ISBN-13: 978-0321603609 | Edition: 1

“While you’re reading Neuro Web Design, you’ll probably find yourself thinking ‘I already knew that…’ a lot. But when you’re finished, you’ll discover that your ability to create effective web sites has mysteriously improved. A brilliant idea for a book, and very nicely done.”
— Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think!
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Why do people decide to buy a product online? Register at your Web site? Trust the information you provide? Neuro Web Design applies the research on motivation, decision making, and neuroscience to the design of Web sites. You will learn the unconscious reasons for people’s actions, how emotions affect decisions, and how to apply the principles of persuasion to design Web sites that encourage users to click.

Neuro Web Design employs “neuro-marketing” concepts, which are at the intersection of psychology and user experience. It’s scientific, yet you’ll find it accessible, easy to read, and easy to understand. By applying the concepts and examples in this book, you’ll be able to dramatically increase the effectiveness and conversion rates of your own Web site.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology. For the past 30 years she has been an industry leader, consultant, and expert in usability, interface, and web design. Most recently she has been reviewing the research on the psychology of persuasion and non-conscious decision-making and has been a keynote speaker on this topic at conferences and for clients. Susan is a national and international speaker for user experience and usability conferences, most recently the keynote speaker for the Internet User Experience Conference in Ann Arbor MI, and an invited speaker for the Usability Professionals Association, just held in Baltimore MD. She has hundreds of clients, mainly in the US.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (January 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321603605
• ISBN-13: 978-0321603609
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan has a Ph.D.in Psychology and over 30 years of experience as a behavioral psychologist. She speaks, consults, teaches, and writes books about applying psychology to the workplace.

While working on her Ph.D., Dr. Weinschenk conducted research on the left and right half of the brain. She was a college psychology professor at State University of New York (Oswego) and then began consulting. Early in her career she focused on applying cognitive psychology (how people think, remember, perceive), to make technology more usable. Recently she's gone back to her neuropsychology roots, studying the newest brain science and research on unconscious mental processing -- decision-making, persuasion, and emotion.

Susan started college at Virgina Tech and finished her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Northeastern. She then earned a Masters and Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University.

Susan founded and runs the Weinschenk Institute, LLC in Wisconsin (USA), where she lives with her husband. Her two children are grown and "launched". When not teaching, speaking, writing, or blogging, Susan performs in community theatre, sings jazz, reads books, and watches movies.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A novel way to look at how a web site appeals to viewers January 11, 2009

By Sathya Srinivasan

Format:Paperback

This is a good book for those who are working on creating web sites and redesigning old ones. The book talks about the various features often seen in websites and how it appeals to users' brain. Being a neurology buff, I have read the various studies mentioned in this book in other literature, but was pleasantly surprised to see it tied to web design.

The book mainly classifies brain in three parts - old (instinctively controlled), mid (emotionally controlled), and new (logically controlled) and explains which brain is triggered by a feature in a web site and eventually argues that you need features that appeal to all three regions to click.

The author has a very engaging way of presenting the content. I read through the entire book in around 2 hours.

I think this is a great book for designers to read and keep in mind while designing a website (kind of builds on top of the "Don't make me think!" book).

I reduced one star because of the amount of content. With such an engaging idea, I was hoping the author would also expand on other concepts of web design such as navigation, placement, layout, etc. Maybe a follow-up book would be a good idea!

All in all, a great book for a quick read (may on a plane or train) to put some new thoughts in your brain regarding web site design.

47 of 56 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Hard to believe this book made it to print January 11, 2011

By Chad Mazzola

Format:Paperback

I usually don't review books on Amazon, but this book was such a disappointment that I feel like I have to warn other people against wasting their time and money.

There are two main components to this book: neuroscience and web design. The neuroscience part is interesting at times, but it's presented in such a simplistic way that it's hard to believe you are getting a reliable take on the material. But it's the web design part where this book really falls down. There are no case studies, no results of usability tests, hardly any data at all on actual users using actual websites. The advice is extremely simplistic and sometimes just plain dumb. The last chapter of the book is particularly awful. Here, folks, is the last sentence of the book: "I don't know what the next big thing online will be. I wish I did know. Then I could create it and make a lot of money and retire. But I do know that the next big thing will involve something social. Because it always does."

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Is this book for you? February 2, 2010

By O. Prusak

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start by saying that I have been creating web sites professionally since 1997 and have been specializing in increasing the bottom line for web sites since 2005.

Overall the book is an easy read (132 pages of content) and makes some excellent points.

Should you get this book?

If you're just getting started with the psychological side of creating web sites, then YES!

On the other hand, if you've been reading the following books then it's basically a re-cap of the their content from the persepctive of creating a web site:
How We Decide
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

What I found lacking from the book was any mention or even acknowledgement of the "graphic design" side of creating web sites.

If you want to truly improve the performance of your web site you need to read books like Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition and Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads which complete the picture.