I wrote Sizzlea few days back and have already gotten an email or two about it. People appreciate the humor (thank goodness!) and then wanted to know how differences in website designs play into people's psyches.Thank goodness for simple questions!
How website design -- how design of anything -- causes different things to get placed into memory is based on factors as variant as koinophilia, how the mind-eye-brain system searches for information, mating behaviors and whether people coming to a site are looking for quick fixes or long term solutions.
First, people look for what's familiar. Even people who are intensely difference driven need a point of familiarity from which to start their "difference" sorting. Material can vary from the norm by only a certain degree before novelty becomes obscenity (and I mean "obscenity" in the very old sense of the word). That offered, material can vary greatly from the norm when society is ready to accept it as novel and not obscene. This has been demonstrated on the web again and again and again.
How the mind-eye-brain system searches for information depends a great deal on what it's looking for. Sweetness sent me a link to a couple performing Quick Change and I shared with some folks that the music does more to direct your attention than most people might think (here the mind-eye-brain system becomes part of the greater mind-senses-brain system as it parses information and delivers it to consciousness. First, the music has a lot to do with where your attention is going to be directed when viewing the clip. Second, watch for the cues these folks give each other when they're "set" for their next costume change. Third, keep an eye out for the minute versus gross motor movements).
And yes, mating behaviors have a lot to do with how people will internalize marketing information (and I'm not talking about "sex sells", although it does). Mating behaviors and whether or not someone's looking for quick solutions to their problems or long term fixes play hand in...uh...well...hand. It's also too rich a topic for a blog post or arc.
Hmm...is this another IMediaConnection column coming on?
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
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I'll be speaking at the Society for New Communications Research Annual Awards Gala Summit on 1-2 Nov 07 in Boston. Come on by and say hello.
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