Customer Reviews

Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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."

Surprisingly contemporary research on human behavior and motivations sighted throughout the book. Susan does a good job of bringing this new research onboard with a clear explanation of the relevance to her work. An easy enlightening and enjoyable read. It will be easy to incorporate some of her powerful ideas into most web pages. One almost feels guilty, of taking advantage of people, by exploiting what she reveals of human nature. Throughout she shows examples of websites that do it right. You can feel the ahhas coming over you as she walks you through their techniques. If you want to make them click, then this is a good place to start.

Personally, I'd rate this book around a 3 or 3.5 just because I've been doing my own research on persuasion for a year or so now. I've read a lot of books on techniques and little things that persuade people to take certain actions. This book is basically a summary on all these different kinds of techniques.

A lot of the things I already knew or had learned in another book, but it was nice to have the author pertain it to web design and design principles. For someone who is just a designer or web focused copy writer looking to dig into this persuasion world, this is a nice place to start. It gives a good overview of all the different aspects of persuasion design, like getting people to click a certain button or feel a certain way when designing a web page.

Some of these things designers may know instintivly, but it's good to have those instincts re-inforced by someone else. At only 16 bucks I would recommend a purchase unless you're really already deep into neuro-design or persuasion techniques.

If you're sort of new to the field like me, you'll enjoy the insight the author gives, though it is a quick read. I think there are only around 200 pages total, if that. She doesn't delve too deep into the topics either. I would have liked to have seen some more case studies perhaps and more detail on some of her research. Possible for a second book she could go more in depth, as it is now it's a great read, albeit a little short.

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.

This is a brief informative book that takes some time honored Sales techniques, explains some of the psychology behind it and then puts it in context of various web practices.

The author covers some of the basics of how we think and how certain things attract us unconsciously due to instinct and the way we evolved. Next they get into the meat of the book and how to use this to make more effective web sites and web sales.

The chapters are:

1. Designing Web sites for Persuasion and the Unconscious mind
2. Wanting to Belong: The power of Social Validation
3. Feeling Indebted: How to build in Reciprocity and Concession
4. Invoking Scarcity: If something seems Unavailable, We seem to want it even more.
5. Choosing carefully: Given too many choices we freeze (and then we don't choose at all)
6. It's all about You: Speaking to the Self-Centered, Unconscious mind.
7. Building Commitment: We want to think we are consistent
8. Using Similarity, Attractiveness and Association: Are we the Same?
9. Afraid to Lose - How our fear of loss trumps our Anticipation of Victory.
10. Using Pictures and Stories - The best way to talk to our unconscious mind
11. We're Social Animals - Finding the next big thing by Making it Social

I'm sure none of these concepts are new, however they way they are covered in this book, the right way versus the wrong way to do things and specific examples makes it easy to read and understand. It is also very conversationally written and flows easily.

The chapters (listed above) and sub sections can be seen in the "Look inside" section and provide you with a good idea of what you are going to find inside. Despite the briefness of the book, it is a good read and gives you some well directed nuggets of info to ponder.

I bought this book today (Kindle for Droid) and I read it in a couple of hours. It was very readable and I found all of the neuroscience studies she used as examples very interesting. I do, however, think the title of the book is deceptive. I would say this book is more about general marketing practices than web design. She never really goes into web design like I was expecting her to. I was hoping she would really drill down into the web design process and discuss how to use this information to really craft a consumer-friendly website.

This is a good introduction into using what we know about human psychological behavior to shape our marketing behavior, but it is NOT a book on human psychology and web design. I also could have done without the closing chapter on social media. If you really know nothing about what's going on online, read it. If you know what Facebook is, you probably could save yourself a few minutes.

If you have any kind of marketing experience at all, you might just want to take this out of the library if you're interested in reading it. But there might be other, better options out there that will give you a more refined look at the topic.

Dr. Weinschenk does herself and persuasive design a huge credit with Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? It can be very easy for an expert of her tenure to gloss over important details or worse, go into too much detail for those looking to learn more about the importance of web design.

Dr. Weinschenk also employs a skillful use of citation in her book. She'll explain a complex function of our minds, share the results of a compelling study and then talk about the implications of web design.

This book will provide value for anyone, from a usability pro to a novice. Highly recommended!

I've been designing websites since 1996 and have read a ton of books, articles, white papers, etc.

Neuro Web Design gave me a new perspective and made me think about things I had never (consciously) considered before.

This is not an instructional book. It is not a scientific treatise, nor does it teach you how to design. But it has given me a new understanding of why people do what they do online and how to better engage with them.

I've already begun to incorporate the concepts in my work with our clients, and I'll give you an example.

Weinschenk writes about "invoking scarcity," hardly a new sales approach. But after I read the book, I was able to go back to one of my clients and suggest a new way to invoke scarcity on his site. This travel company sells custom tours to S. America. There's nothing scarce about S. America. I can go this year, I can go next year. How can we make it seem like you have to go NOW or you'll miss it?

Well it happens to be the 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu and there are all sorts of events associated with it that happen only once in a lifetime. So now my client is selling something that has a unique sense of urgency around it.

Should I have thought about this before reading the book? Maybe. But the fact is I came up with the idea the day after I finished reading the book.

Buy it. Read it. Think about it.

This book was informative and an easy read. The concepts are presented in an accessible way and reinforced by examples and scientific study. A very valuable resource. I think most experienced web designers will be surprised by what they are NOT doing and entertained by the science behind the conventions they have been using successfully.