User Experience News, Blogs, and Videos

How Obama is using the science of change

An article from Time on April 2, 2009 describes how President Obama used a secret group of behavioral scientists to craft his campaign, and how he continues to use the group to implement policy changes in the government and consumer changes in behavior.

This secret group includes many of the well known names in the field of persuasion, including Cialdini, Ariely, and others. The secret group is advising the Obama adminstration on how to use the principles I talk about it my book, Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? In my book, I explain how to use persuasion principles such as social validation, reciprocity, commitment and others to create web pages that persuade visitors to take specific actions.

So now when you redesign your page to be more persuasive, you are joining the ranks of people "in the know" including President Obama!

Comment

You need to be a member of HFI Connect to add comments!

Join HFI Connect

Comment by Tom Coleman, CUA # 2007-1319 on August 26, 2009 at 1:35pm: "Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president." -- Arianna Huffington

More on the Obama campaign at Thought Works:
http://martinfowler.com/articles/obamaSoftware.html

Comment by Chris Sharma on June 17, 2009 at 3:52am: Thanks for the reference. It was really fascinating to read about them. I have tried to use the findings in my work and am successful to some extent. Specially Dan Ariely, Cialdini and the choice architects Thaler and Sunstein (who were former colleagues of Barak Obama, ref: wiki). Their work really helps in making us understand the basics of behaviorial economics and how those principle could be used in our daily life.

It feels good to know that the authors I have been reading have actually helped something like campaings for President of United States (credibility factor). Looking forward to read your book, thanks again.

Comment by Jyoti Kumar on April 30, 2009 at 2:54am: This is indeed a cool article and a hope that good intention with powerful persuasive techniques would transform the way world continues to look over the essentials of a sustainable living.
Thanks Susan!
Obama should now consult HFI for persuading and channelizing the businessmen for a sustainable growth !