Contents

On this page, you will find the following:

• Description
• Learning Goals
• Workshop Outline
• Further Reading and Resources

Description

This workshop explores the world of persuasive design and design tricks, which are design decisions on websites, apps, and in advertisements that provoke people emotionally and persuade visitors to click, share, and buy. By becoming aware of physical and emotional responses to stressful stimuli and the persuasive designs of tech which are rooted in basic psychology, this workshops helps participants keep calm and spot the design tricks.

(This is part 1 of the misinformation workshop series, facts vs. feelings) Click here for part 2)*

• Duration: 115 minutes
• Ideal for 10-25 participants

Learning Goals

• Define persuasive designs
• Discuss design tricks
• Identify physical and emotional stress triggers

Workshop Outline

Below is an overview of the workshop outline:

• Opening
• Keep Calm 1
• Reflection: Takeaways
• Closing

Opening

Time needed: 5 minutes+
Purpose: to welcome participants as well as setting expectations and goals.

1. Introductions:
   • Introduce workshop title
   • Facilitator introduces themselves
2. Explain the learning goals
3. Review the ground rules

Variations:

• Develop collaborative ground rules along with participants if there is time.
• Ask participants to go around and introduce themselves if there is time. You can even ask people to share how they calm down when they are stressed if it seems appropriate for the time and group dynamic. (e.g. “Hello, my name is... and I like to get fresh air when I am stressed.”)

Keep Calm 1

Time needed: 3 minutes
Purpose: for participants to begin to make the connection between external influences and internal stressors.

1. Close your eyes to focus on your breathing.
2. Take a slow deep breath in from your nose. Hold it for few seconds.
3. Now slowly breath out from your mouth as if you are blowing into a straw. Hold it for a few seconds.
4. Repeat two more times then open your eyes again slowly.

Did you know? Studies have shown that they types of misinformation which tends to go viral are those which cause us "strong" emotional reactions such as anger, awe, disgust, etc. As a result, our hypothesis is that with this knowledge, becoming more attuned to our physical reactions may help individuals become more aware of and perhaps even slow down and reconsider sharing emotionally-triggering content.

Context section: 20 minutes 6. Describe what “persuasive design” means briefly to audience a. EXPLAIN ACTIVITY: Now I will show you some examples in order to better illustrate what persuasive designs may include. When I show a new slide, call out what you see. It can be simple and descriptive, for example: I see a red button with the words “click here”. You can also share where you’ve seen this, and how it might be helpful or harmful. 7. Example: (ask audience: What is this example? How is this helpful or is it harmful?) airports and hospitals signs, arrows, color-coding, symbols 8. Example: (ask audience: What is this example? How is this helpful or is it harmful?) cut along the dotted line as a helpful indicator 9. Describe when persuasive design become pushy or sneaky and called “design tricks” a. Not always obvious! b. The benefit is almost always to a business-maybe it benefits you as well sometimes, but usually someone else is profiting from it. 10. Example: (ask audience: What is this example? How is this helpful or is it harmful?) checkout lane in a store: cheap chocolates, magazines, last minute grabs (chapstick, gift cards) 11. Example: (ask audience: What is this example? How is this helpful or is it harmful?) Product placement found in movies, on products 12. Example: (ask audience: What is this example? How is this helpful or is it harmful?) Countdown clock a. Sense of urgency b. Why is the time running? c. Will they really run out of stock? 13. CALM DOWN: that was stressful! Try just closing your eyes for a moment. Imagine something nice like your favorite place. For me, I imagine sitting at the beach when it’s quiet and all I hear are the waves lightly coming in and hitting the shore. 14. There are some of the consequences of tricky designs… 15. Introduce “fight or flight or freeze” a. Responses to stress b. Affecting our brains, but also very real physical reactions: nerves, hormones, blood pressure, to name a few 16. Ask audience to describe each, write down key descriptive terms—focus on PHYSICAL REACTIONS and EMOTIONS evoked a. If needed, insert additional suggestions (but wait for audience to come up with these first) i. Physical: dry mouth, pupils dilate or blurred vision, quick breathing, chills, sweating, flushed cheeks, muscles tense, stomach churns, shaking hands ii. Emotional: Irritability, Loss of temper, Defensiveness, Avoidance, Anxiety, Fear, Numbing, Detachment, Mind goes blank 17. CALM DOWN: hand massage. Use the thumb of one hand to massage the pressure point on the palm of your other hand. You can also use your knee to massage your palm by pressing your hand into your knee and moving it around in a circular motion. 18. When you feel stressed or confused, after you calm yourself down, ask questions: why did you become stressed? What can you do to deal with that stress better next time? Question: what exactly am I feeling? What part of my body feels different or off? What is the last thing I remember seeing or hearing? Did I come across a design trick? Spot the Tricks: 25 minutes 19. Spot the Design Tricks: We’ll look at more examples of tricky designs, and I’d like you to call out what you see-describe it for us. a. Call on 1-3 people from the group to share their thoughts and what they see. 20. What do you see? (call on audience!) a. This is an example from an American Football game where Nike is advertising in the background. b. How does it make you feel? Why? c. Why did they choose Nike? Why not just make up a brand or advertise another game from the game publisher? 21. What do you see? (call on audience!) a. This is a screenshot from a website for booking accommodation. b. Design tricks here: i. Thumbs up and stars ii. highlighted sales iii. formulations: “Fabulous”, Limited-time Deal, Location 9.5 to “prove” it ‘s a great deal iv. Only 7 rooms left on our site (fake urgency?) v. 5,145 reviews—are those review real or bots or paid for? c. How does it make you feel? d. Can that change your reactions or influence your purchase? 22. What do you see? (call on audience!) a. This is a Nintendo Switch, and we created this advertisement based on common design patterns. b. Design tricks here: i. Thumbs up ii. “Good” next to 7.6 (which actually isnt a very good score if it’s out of 10) iii. 4,181 reviews—are those review real or bots or paid for? c. How does it make you feel? Why? d. Why do you think the designer made these specific choices? 23. CALM DOWN: these examples are causing me stress. Let’s gently stretch our necks by slowly moving our heads down, so you get close to your chin to your chest. You can then slowly move your head back up and back. 24. What do you see? (call on audience!) a. Design tricks here: i. Red/pink texts —6 left: won’t they just get more stock? ii. Green texts (which say free next to the price (not really free! what does it even mean?) iii. BUY is on a big blue button b. Why do you think the designer made these specific choices? 24. What do you see? (call on audience!) a. Typing bubble b. so obvious we hardly even notice it’s a trick c. how does it make you feel? d. Why do you think the designer made these specific choices?

25. What do you see? (call on audience!)
    a. Likes, followers, and views
    b. Across various platforms
    c. so obvious we don’t notice it anymore
    d. how does it make you feel?
    e. Why do you think the designer made these specific choices?
    f. What would the world be like without “likes”?
26. CALM DOWN: like this calm looking person in the picture, sit up straight or lean back and move your arms up and meet your hands behind your head. A good time for a deep breath or to close your eyes.
27. What do you see? (call on audience!)
    a. Instagram influencer—picture of her buying pizza, but she is advertising jeans! You know this because it says in the photo description “@aeropostale denim” and “#BestDenimEver” and “#ad”
    b. How does it make you feel? Why? 
28. What do you see? (call on audience!)
    a. The game Pokemon Go which actually places Pokemon at businesses (outside and even inside at the cash register) in order to trick people to go inside and spend money
    b. How does it make you feel? Why? 
    c. So with all of these examples, why do you think the designer made these specific choices? 
    d. How might these choices be good for a business?
    e. How might they harm or trick people?
    f. Where else might you see these designs in real life?
    g. How could a designer re-design these to be less sneaky? 
        i. For example, how to redesign the “like”? 
            1. Do we really need to know the number?
29. How else has your phone been designed to grab your attention? (discussion)
    a. Help fuel the discussion: Flashing lights, vibrations, Notifications, Infinite scrolling (it makes it hard to stop!
30. Bonus! Video - Have you ever tried to delete your Amazon account? Do you think that you can delete your account easily? Let ‘s watch the video:
    a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxkrdLI6e6M (time: 0:20 - 1:42)
    b. It is a tricky design called Roach Motel - it is usually really simple to create new account, but very difficult to delete it. E.g. to delete Amazon account you need to go through 7 non-intuitive steps and chat with the bot. 

Closing section: 5 minutes 31. So remember that next time you feel bad or stressed or confused or anxious to Pause, Breathe, and Question! 32. CALM DOWN: for our last calm down exercise we’ll do a kind of stretch, we’ll give ourselves a hug. Good job everyone!

Reflection: Takeaways

Time needed: 15 minutes
Purpose: to get a sense of what your participants have learned.

1. Ask participants to create a takeaway poster by sharing their answers to the following question in the shared whiteboard / drawing board: What are your main takeaways from today's workshop?
2. Give participants a few minutes to write and/or draw their thoughts.
3. Ask participants to share their posters, either by presenting or hanging them on the wall.
4. Highlight some of the points brought up to the group.

Closing

Time needed: 5 minutes
Purpose: to give a chance for participants to review what has been covered.

1. Wrap up the workshop and sum up its contents.
2. Run a quick feedback session to gather participants' reactions. Each participant can share:
   • one thing they found very good about the session and
   • one thing they would improve for the next time
3. Encourage participants to ask questions or give some final tips.
4. Share resources and any follow-up details.

Tips:

• Take notes of the feedback points.
• In case you have trouble accepting critical feedback, try to respond with a simple "thank you" and think about it later when you have the headspace for it.

Further Reading and Resources