The Science of Shopping (1996)

http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_11_04_a_shopping.htm

by danw • 18 years ago

15 13 18 years ago

satyajit3• 18 years ago

Would love if you can share a similar article on online shopping - that'll immensely help this forum. We all are trying to create something that we would be able to offer online, or have people pay for subscription, or what have you. Would like to get into deeper psychology discussion on what makes people make such decision. Any thoughts? Articles?

danw3• 18 years ago

Not that I know of. I'm currently exploring retail design, urban planning and architecture to learn how real spaces are designed and to translate it to the web.

amix2• 18 years ago

I think Jacob Nielsen is probably an expert in this field: http://www.useit.com/ (beware of a really ugly design).

Other than this, I think the safest bet is to trust the data, e.g. A/B testing. Being too smart without any testing could lead to fatal mistakes - Google has thousands of phd's and they still trust real user testing more than "opinions" (at least according to Peter Norvig :)).

Paco Underhill seems to use the same method, i.e. observing real customers and then drawing conclusions.

satyajit3• 18 years ago

Thx Amix. I was not aware of the site. Seems a very good resource, though its usability centered. I would still like to see some discussion around the original post - with web emphasis.

DougBTX• 18 years ago

As for the "Right Turn", it would be translated to "Top Left of Text Block" rule: http://images.google.com/images?q=eye+tracking

danw3• 18 years ago

On eye tracking and web forms http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000107.php

puzzle-out• 18 years ago

I've done a bit of desk research into ecommerce userbility studies, the journal Electronic Consumer Research is the most focussed, although 80% of the articles seem to be refuting the previous one published. The remaining 20% can be insightful (and provide useful terms with which to impress clients).

gommm• 18 years ago

One thing I wonder about the invariant right is if it changes in countries where people drive and walk on the left side.

jaytee_clone• 18 years ago

Wouldn't it be great if such meticulous studies were done on other things, such as education?

tsbardella• 18 years ago

I remember reading this when it came out.

The Science of Shopping (1996)

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