Persuasion
Persuasion is a class we’re required to take as design juniors, taught by Dan Lockton, Michael Arnold Mages, and Stephen Neely. In this class, we’ll be looking at written argumentation, oral presentations, artifact exhibitions, branding, and social media. The intention of this class is so that we can learn how to apply our design ideas and relate them to people and organizations to increase perceived value to our target audiences.
WEEK ONE
1.17 | First Class
We had a class on eurhythmics today, taught by Stephen. That was a lot of fun, reminiscent of JN rehearsals when we sang and walked to the pacing of the music. I especially enjoyed it because he played a lot of songs in 3/4 time signature (yay waltz!) The significance of that introduction was realizing the importance of time. I thought it was interesting that he brought up a really big difference between analogue and digital environments: analogue motion can never happen in an instant — it always requires time for something to go from A to point B, before and after; on the other hand, things can occur instantaneously in the digital world.
For next class, Stephen told us to do research on the term ‘entrainment’. We’re also asked to bring in something (printed) that is an example of persuasion.
ENTRAINMENT
- Any of several processes in which a solid or liquid is put into motion by a fluid.
- The carrying away of droplets of liquid during violent boiling
- The movement of sediment in a stream of water or in a glacier
- The mixing of air currents
- The mixing of out flowing river water and underlying seawater.
- (biology) The alignment of an organism’s circadian rhythm to an external rhythm in its environment
- (Pokemon) Entrainment changes the target’s Ability to match the user’s. If a Pokémon affected by Entrainment is switched out, it regains its original Ability. If both Pokémon have the same Ability, Entrainment will fail.
I’m considering bringing in a WWF advertisement that I find powerful, since I’ve always loved WWF’s posters (one of the reasons I wanted to become a designer). Here are some of the posters I’m considering:
More here: http://www.boredpanda.com/32-most-creative-wwf-ads/
I think these posters are extremely powerful. But now that I’m looking at them, am I persuaded to make a difference and help? I’m still not so sure…
Instead…I’ve decided to bring something much more graphic (geez). WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS. I’ve decided to bring the cigarette packaging people are required to use in Australia.
I think this is pretty effective in steering people away from buying cigarettes. Perhaps not for those who are already addicted smokers, but definitely for those contemplating trying it out…just no.
Cigarette packets in Australia have undergone significant change. Since 1 December 2012 all forms of branding logos, colours, and promotional texts are banned from cigarette pack designs. In turn they were replaced with drab dark brown packets (Pantone 448C) and graphic images of smoking-related images to try to reduce the smoking population of Australia to 10% by 2018 from 15% in 2012. As of August 2016, Australia, France, the United Kingdom and Hungary are the only countries in the world to have plain packaging cigarette packs. (Wikipedia)
1.19 | Persuasion Literacy
We took a look at the different examples of persuasion that our classmates brought in. The range was wide — from a refund from uber to a red traffic light to the mapping of a slave ship to a SUPREME brick. If we were to group them, there are items on the board that
I believe that persuasion is fundamentally built upon fear.
Literacy in how we are being persuaded through technology — changing people’s behaviour, etc.
Multiple Literacies — Information literacy, visual literacy, spatial literacy, cultural literacy, media literacy…critical literacy (ability to engage with things and evaluate level of persuasion including implications)
“Every reading of the word is preceded by a reading o the world.”
— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the City, 1993
Design requires you to engage the world to change something.
Audio literacy — if we read the transcript, it might be one thing, but the delivery is the difference e.g. car honking
AGOGIC
- the theory that accent within a musical phrase can be produced by modifying the duration of certain notes rather than by increasing dynamic stress
- volume, dynamics (progression), pitch, duration, tempo, agogics all build up attention
Soma literacy — understanding, personal relevance — what in you can I speak to?
Propaganda — force, political, connected to action, origin was religious (Pope Gregory XV established in 1622 to perpetuate faith)
The communication of a point of view with the goal of having the recipient of the appeal come to ‘voluntarily’ accept this position as if it were his or own.
— Anthony Pratkanis & Eliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda, 2001
Propaganda is not ‘debate’; it’s not argued.
- ignore alternatives
- overemphasizing
** Edward Bernays — Sigmund Freud’s nephew applied theories of
** Adam Curtis, Century of the Self
- manages to link the suffrage acts to cigarettes
“The Medium is the Message” — Marshall McLuhan
“The content of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind” — Marshall McLuhan
“Form excludes message” — Neil Postman
ASSIGNMENT
Collect 3 examples of each:
- entrainment
- interpretive community / targeting (e.g. piano players, etc.)
- propaganda
Use template, upload to Box, Pin up on board
ENTRAINMENT
INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITY TARGETING
PROPAGANDA
WEEK TWO
1.24 | Entrainment, Interpretive Community Targeting, Propaganda
We walked around the Skibo gym barefoot in rhythms of 3/4 time and common time. It’s easier to sync our tempo to the piano tempo that is familiar, that we’re accustomed to (e.g. the pace we walk to class). Giving our partner a high five required more planning because it requires two individuals syncing — part of which is out of our own control. We entrain because we like congruency and harmony — safety, comfort, familiarity. It was difficult to continue our own tempo when the more authoritative dominant tempo changed.
Entrainment
- social proof could lead to entrainment
- we like congruency
Interpretive Community Targeting
- a group of people that decode messages in the same way
- a community decoding or a community that might decode
Propaganda
- statement, not a question
- guilt trip
METER
- a recurring pattern of stresses or accents that provide the pulse or beat of music
- notated at the beginning of a composition with a time signature
“When the tempo (or speed) of the music is very slow or very fast, the beat can be perceived as being different from the meter as notated. An example of a fast tempo would be a Viennese waltz where the meter is shown as 3/4 (with 3 beats per measure and the 4 or quarter note getting one beat), but this style of waltz is performed so quickly, it is perceived as being performed with one beat per measure. The written meter is still correct, only the performance of the composition gives the perception of something different.
Similarly, when a composition is performed very slowly, the listener can often hear (or feel) twice the number of beats than are notated. With extremely slow music, it is often difficult to hear any beat or pulse.
TEMPO
- The rate of speed of a musical piece or passage indicated by one of a series of directions (such as largo, presto, or allegro) and often by an exact metronome marking
- Rate of motion or activity : pace
1.26 | Organization of Types of Persuasion
Our group was given a stack of examples for interpretive community targeting. We’re organizing the pile based on the scale of reach (number of people within the community) for each of the identified community groups.
ENTRAINMENT
Different levels of entrainment (people’s level of awareness of entrainment): aware → unaware
Different types of entrainment: social, biological, learned / skills
Different processes of entrainment: internal vs. external, synchronized vs. spontaneous
INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITY TARGETING
In-group: obtaining a product vs. subscribing to a set of ideas
In-group: stereotypical gender-perpetuating, generational, gender-enhancing, entertainment
PROPAGANDA
Political: negative (of enemy) political, positive (self) political, social / HIV, advertising
Advertisement, political (policy), political (conflict), social
War, political, social, environment, ads, cultural
Active / Passive Persuasion
- Active Persuasion: give someone something with expectation of a favour in return
- Deferred Active Persuasion: Give someone a reward that will be cashed in the future
- Passive Persuasion: guilt people to do something
Social Proof (psychological)
can be contrived —
McDonald’s (billions and billions served), laugh track, “salt” the tip jar, bouncers will hold people outside clubs, FOMO, inauguration number
The Crying Indian Advertisement
Clipboards are extremely powerful signifiers of power. — MAM
With great power, comes great responsibility.
ASSIGNMENT
Collect 2 examples of each:
- meter
- tempo
- active persuasion
- passive persuasion
- social proof
- authority
WEEK THREE
1.31 | Visual Language
ASSIGNMENT
find example of things/behaviours with a natural beat
- same type of media speak to the same interpretive community — use different methods to reach out, but what’s more effective?
- meet people where they are — visual language, etc.
PROJECT 1
Making set of cards explaining different concepts to other people. Structuring a body of knowledge to deliver to others.
ASSIGNMENT
3 sketches of ways to categorize concepts
2.2 | Beat, Scarcity, Liking
ASSIGNMENT
Collect 3 examples of each: beat, scarcity, liking (variants of attractiveness, similarity, contact/familiarity)
WEEK FOUR
2.7 |
Today we walked around the room and noticed different “nudges” in our partner’s motion. We walked around the room, give each other subtle but sudden suggestions of changes in direction.
AGOGIC
- the theory that accent within a musical phrase can be produced by modifying the duration of certain notes rather than by increasing dynamic stress
- volume, dynamics (progression), pitch, duration, tempo, agogics all build up attention
Oblique Strategies — random set of cards with a collection of ideas, gives commission to ideas when drawn
Expert doesn’t mean necessarily more creative, but that they have a repertoire of experiences and knowledge they could draw from
“The elements of this language are entities called patterns. Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution that that problem, in such, a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.”
Do you want this to be something that tells people how to do it? Or merely as suggestions?
Methods of Structuring:
- Categorization/sorting
- idea generation
- as something to browse
- as a provocation
- in combination
- randomly
- in a structured way
The structure itself — what you decide to include, what you leave out, and how you frame your categories — can be a design choice to emphasize what you want it to
We can’t see what’s not there
2.12 |
ASSIGNMENT
Collect 2 examples of each:
- agogics
- constraining
- enabling
- motivating
WEEK FIVE
2.13 | A Note from Stephen: Agogics
Your only new concept from me for this week was Agogics.
Agogics bring about a change in emphasis through duration. Longer durations feel heavier, shorter feel lighter.
(as opposed to dynamics which accomplish emphasis through volume)
The accumulation and ordering of long and short durations of time create Rhythms.
Beat and Meter are related.
Beat is the pulse of an experience. It is often expected to be steady, that is, a series of beats of the relative same length (whereas, rhythms are made up of varying durations).
Meter occurs when there is a predictable cadence or regular grouping of beats.
Tempo is one way to describe or analyze a set of beats. It describes the speed of the beats and can speed up or slow down.
We notice all of these things in an experience by the shifts of weight that they cause in our bodies. You only know that you are moving (i.e. stepping) because of the changing feeling of weight the motion creates in your body. Agogics and dynamics and beats and different meters at different tempos all create the feeling of motion in your body through the feelings of shifting weight.
2.14 | Crusis
The entire experience is the gap between the two points of contact [of clapping to the beat], not the moments themselves.
— Stephen Neely
CRUSIS / CRUSIC
- The heaviest part of an experience — the entire experience leading up to this moment
Anchoring — setting up an expectation, to provide contrast to other options
Bundling — get a dog to get medicine; can you get something you want to do and combine it with something they want to do
I cut, you choose — can you structure a system so that no one user can get an advantage over others simply by being first to act
Roach motel — easy in, difficult out (uninstalling is much easier than installing)
ASSIGNMENT
Pick a ‘Machiavellian’ or ‘Dark Pattern’ principle and find two examples ‘in the wild’ (reference: http://darkpatterns.CRUSIS is the point of arrival, or point of contact. It is the moment when the ball hits the bat. There are multiple crusis at play all around us all the time and they are expressed at different levels. Your heartbeat, your respiration, your foot on the floor with every step, your swiping of your ID at a kiosk, your arriving at class after a walk from your apartment, your moment of epiphany, your completion of your degree, your signing on the bottom line….these are all examples of crusis. — Stephen Neely
WEEK SIX
2.21 | The Experience of Crusis
As users, we become caricatures of what designers make of us. — DLockton
“Design with people, not for people. Understand people’s lives, and understand their decision process.”
Two ways of doing this better:
- understanding what people are trying to do and helping them do it better
- understanding how people understand the world, and helping them understand it differently
“People are inherently bad at making decisions, so experts ened to intervene and help them”
“People are inherently ok at making decisions, so experts should learn more about how they do it.”
ASSIGNMENT
- find an experience demonstrating crusis (roller coaster ride) that can be broken down and explained in its highs and lows
- find one example of design that seems to be about “understanding what people are trying to do, and helping them do it better” OR
- find one example of design that seems to be about “understanding how people understand the world, and helping them understand it differently as a form of persuasion”
How does that understanding affect people’s behavior?
How could design help how people understand?
AN EXPERIENCE OF CRUSIS
WEEK SEVEN
3.2 | Moments of Crusis
List: beat, meter, tempo, phrase/crusis, rhythm — agogics, tiers
- Attention to tiers
- chronos (mapping of time, e.g. this took 6 min.)/kairos (mapping of emotions, e.g. frustration of waiting)
- how to address the space in between? (what happens during the “swoop”?)
- small and main crusis
- reorder chain of events (recreate experience)
~* Cardew — Treatise
~* McQueen — Picnic
~* György Ligeti — Artikulation
~* Berberian — Stripsody
~* Brian Eno — Music for Airports
~* Alexander Nevsky — Graphic score
4 Basic Moves:
- de-contextualizing
- addition — adding something in
- subtraction — taking something away
- transferring — taking something and moving it somewhere else
- substituting — replacing something with something else
visual:
- visual metonymy (something related to the actual thing, in lieu of the thing itself)
- visual metaphor
- visual synecdoche (part representing the whole)
- visual hyperbole
- visual verbal analogy
- visual verbal negation
3.5 | Revising Crusis Experience + Intervention
Below is the revised version of the crusis experience for Steven (growing a sunflower), as well as an added intervention that slightly alters the experience.
WEEK EIGHT
3.7 | Pre-Mid-semester Break Class
ASSIGNMENT:
Due Tues (3/21) — Build a word, place it in an environment, make sure the two have some sort of relationship — creating visual figure of speech.
CLASS:
- Design as rhetoric (the art of persuasion)
- logos (reasoning) /ethos (character) /pathos (emotion)
- Prof Richard Buchanan (Head of SoD@CMU from 1992–2002): “Design is a form of rhetoric”
- ~* “Declaration by Design” by Richard Buchanan
- Memphis Movement: post-modernism
- “A designer makes an argument that comes alive each time a person considers his or her creation” — Jon Kolko, paraphrasing Richard Buchanan
What arguments are being made by designed things around us?
“umm this is the last class, last class before we get a, a break…kind of.” — DL (?????) lol
3.9 | Design as Rhetoric
Recap:
What arguments are being made by designed things around us?
- The designer as “ a speaker who fashions a world and invites others to share in it”
- The audience of “users who may be persuaded to adopt…”
logos — design “attempts to persuade audience not only that a given design is useful, but also that the designer’s premises or attitudes and values regarding practical life or the proper tole of technology are important as well”
ethos — “products have character because in some way they reflect their makers, and part of the art of design is the control of such character in order to persuade potential user that a product has credibility in their lives”
pathos — the “emotive argument of a design…collapses the distance between the object and the minds of the users, leading them to identify with with the expressive movement and allow it to carry them where it will”
Krippendorff: rhetoric in design should be about:
- finding new categories (patterns)
- learning from real-world experience of how design interacts with society
- especially how design reflects on or represents constrains (psychological, social, cultural, ecological) — and maybe challenges them?
Writers and designers of games are effectively creating worlds that enable or prevent certain actions, and make certain points of view evident through rules and ‘what is possible’ (Ian Bogost, Georgia Tech)
How does procedural rhetoric apply to design outside of games? (constraining, and opening up possibilities / enabling)
Products semantics (Krippendorff)= meaning, or a concern for meaning
How do you communicate meaning?
All meaning arises from the context, context arises from the meaning?
Hermaneutics — bringing something to you (how is the meaning brought to you?)
“Humans always act so to preserve the meaningfulness of their interfaces”
— Klaus Krippendorff, The Semantic Turn
“Metaphor can be a powerful tool for designers, in both the process of designing and within the products themselves…Metaphors provide cues to users how to understand products: to orient and personify.”
— Dan Saffer
Using the wrong metaphor could lead to more unsuccessful deliveries.
As everything turns into a shiny black rectangle, what happens to ‘form follows function’?
WEEK TWELVE
4.11 | Cognitive Biases in Human Behaviour
Loss Aversion — people would usually want compensation h
“People would prefer not losing over winning.”
Escalation of commitment — e.g. airplane tickets increase price if you keep going back to the website (go on incognito instead!);
Cognitive biases — lots of them; hypothetical — inferred from observations of human behaviour and decision-making, used to explain deviance from ‘expected’ rational utility theory in economics (e.g. see below)
The IKEA effect — a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created
Heuristics — people haven’t got infinite capacity or time to compare and simulate every possible outcome so they follow simple heuristics: “ That restaurant’s always busy; so it’s probably OK”; “That worked last time, so it will probably work this time”; I’ll go with the brand name I’ve heard of” satisficing (people will usually pick the first option that works)
~* Nudge — Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
~* Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
For design and persuasion
- consider heuristics as as something we can learn from (Gerd Gigerenzer; Herbert Simon) and perhaps part of what makes us human, evolutionarily
- rather than treating humans as ‘defective’ (Daniel Kahneman)
4.13 | Logical Fallacies
- logical fallacy — ‘errors’ in reasoning; can be exploited to persuade; related to cognitive biases in the sense that fallacies are often another way of describing a deviation from what is assumed to be a ‘correct’ way of thinking
- formal and informal fallacies — usually it is informal ones that are used in persuasion, but not always
- conjunction fallacy or the representativeness heuristic (Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations — which is more probable? A) Linda is a bank teller; B) Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement (Kahneman & Tversky) — formal fallacy
- Gigerener: studies like this violate normal conversational rules. No one talks like this in the real world, so we unprepared to ‘reason’ in this way
“the imposition of unnecessarily narrow norms of sound reasoning that are used to diagnose so-called cognitive illusions and the continuing reliance on vague heuristics that explain everything and nothing.”
- **Abductive Reasoning — coming up with ways trying to figure out how something might work, coming up with possibilities (what if…this might be true…) “abduction affords possibilities” (Lucy Kimmel, Jon Kolko)
WEEK THIRTEEN
4.18 | Cybernetics
- Cybernetics — kyber = steering (Greek); the science of steering
- cybernetics leaves out many things of the system
- Occam’s Razor: the simple explanation is the better explanation → Galileo’s explanation of Earth’s rotation
- Games: Apples to Apples, A Thousand Blank Cards (One Continued Story)
