Usability Week 2008
New York
Apr 7-12		 London
May 19-24		 San Francisco
Jun 16-21		 Melbourne
Jul 21-26

Websites that Sell: The Role of Motivational Psychology in Website Design

  • New York: Saturday, April 12
  • London: Saturday, May 24
  • San Francisco: Saturday, June 21
  • Melbourne: Saturday, July 26

Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini
Full-Day Tutorial

Is your website achieving its full potential? In this course, you’ll learn to design sites that attract customers and motivate them to buy products or services, support your cause, or improve employee success and satisfaction, all in a pleasant, supportive environment that will ensure your site visitors will want to return.

Join Tog, our world-renowned user interface design guru, who, before the invention of the personal computer, was an award-winning salesperson for 15 years, selling millions of dollars worth of consumer electronics and teaching hundreds of others the secrets of “closing the deal.”

Drawing on both his extensive human computer interaction design and his sales experience, Tog will teach you how to avoid key website pitfalls that can drive potential customers away, then thoroughly detail important motivational psychology fundamentals with emphasis on how to apply them to online sales. Armed with this thorough grounding in motivational psychology, you’ll ensure that your online customers not only stick around and buy what you’re selling right now, but will come back again and again.

What You’ll Learn

In this session, you’ll learn how to work in a cooperative team of designer(s) and marketer(s) to:

  • Transition from passive order-taking to actively selling products and services
  • Spot and correct “bailout points” where customers are leaving your site
  • Gather simple info from customers to help target your “sales pitch”
  • Design pages that motivate purchases, not just present data
  • “Close” sales, so customers will buy from your site or buy into your cause today

Course Outline

  • Motivational psychology: Theory & practice
    • How to apply motivational psychology to website design: Tried and true motivational techniques that can both improve the user experience & close sales
  • Understanding your customers
    • Moving beyond demographics to customer strengths, fears, and motivations
  • Simple, effective solutions to keep customers on your site
    • Tog will explain how, then you’ll work in small-group workshops to hone your techniques
  • You’ll learn to:
    • Fix common “bail-out” areas such as:
      • Splash screens
      • Home pages
      • Registration forms
      • Checkout screens
      • Etc.
    • Correct:
      • Creeping legalese
      • Confusing navigation
      • Content-free “About Us” pages
      • Presentation structure and content
      • Etc.

Format

This full-day tutorial includes lectures and workshops.

Handouts

Copies of the presentation slides

Who Should Attend?

This course will offer critical insights for designers, marketers, and project leaders working on the e-commerce front lines. Mastering the art of closing the deal online is equally useful for anyone interested in learning to streamline their site’s user experience. Upon completion, participants will understand how to design websites that are attractive, engaging, and effective.

Instructor

Photo of Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini is a recognized leader in human/computer interaction design. As chief designer at Healtheon/WebMD, he helped establish WebMD as the premiere healthcare website. Before that, he was distinguished engineer for Strategic Technology at Sun, where he led the Starfire project that predicted the rise of the World Wide Web. During his 14 years at Apple Computer, he founded the Apple Human Interface Group and acted as Apple’s Human Interface Evangelist. In 2000, he rejoined his long-time colleagues as a principal at the Nielsen Norman Group. A sought-after public speaker and consultant, he has published two books, Tog On Interface and Tog On Software Design, both from Addison-Wesley, as well as the webzine AskTog.