Tools for Enchantment. 20 Ways to Woo Users Panel

How do you get the brain a little more interested?

Photo from Deneyterrio

Kathy Sierra asked us what did you really want to be good at and didn’t make it… For me it is jewelry making / metal smithing. I used to go to Texas Tech, and had exposure to amzaing metal smith teaching… and I loved it, but was never good at it.

Our theme for the panel is “How do we help our users kick ass?”. Here are the notes:

• Second Question: Would you rather have users talk about your product or your company? I would rather have our users talk about our products… because it is more profitable. They don’t care about us as much.
• Kathy wants our users to have a better and more high resolution experience… what can we do to help that.
• Neurogenesis occurs when you are in an environment that promotes it
• The difference between fantastic and average is
  1. not about natural talent
  2. and is instead about practicing… and putting in the time
  3. It is your fault if you don’t practice
• Read the 4 hour work week -figure out what you want to be good at and find a way to devote time to that. Optimize your time

Here are the 20 Points:

1. Use Telepathy -You have to see someone’s face – Mirror neurons fire off and help us read other folks. Motor neurons react when you see movement – you run a simulation of what you see. You have to see people to do it.
2. Serendipity – make sure you build in randomness for your users. It leaves a sense of chance that people like
3. The Dog Ear Principle – the bounce at the end.. and the subtle movements make movement more attractive. Another word for secondary action
4. Joy – give your users a joyful experience
5. Inspire First Person Language – What would you do to inspire first person language. How can you get your users to talk about themselves
6. T-Shirt First Development – Say what you want your users to say on a T-shirt. What does being your user say about people. “And for God’s sake, make a woman’s fitted T-shirt”
7. Easter Egg – Give folks a good surprise find
8. Tools for Evangelizing: This helps them kick ass – Example is “Twitter in Plain English”
9. You are a….: Predator or a fluffy bunny. Manage Stress, manage the fight or flight response.
10. Exercise the Brain/Body: Exercising your body helps develop your brain too
11. Give them Superpowers Quickly: How can you get people really engaged quickly. What can you do the keep people pushing forward. (your users need to reflect their experience to you)
12. Help with reinvestment of mental resources into new challenges: Experts don’t shrink the list of things they do, they just add new challenges when an old one is done.
13. Focus: You have to devote all of your attention to certain things
14. Create a Culture of Support: If you want to build a community… you want people to be mentors early, they are an expert in the pain and can share the information – No dumb answers
15. Do not insist on “inclusivity”: Jargon is awesome. Passionate users talk different, so maybe you should try to seperate the experts from the newbies.
16. Practice Seductive Opacity: Brains love mystery.
17. Real is good… How can you deliver your message through real objects. There is a ressurgence in real tangible items – not virtual. It’s all about the package. Unboxing is the experience of opening your new digital things.
18. I missed two numbers?????

Gary Bainbridge came in to speak…. Talks about how wine can experience a deeper resolution, and how he is using his show makes his viewers entertaining.

Now we are touching the shoulder of the person next to us… good and interesting end to a panel.