Amazon succeeds because their strategy catches the psychological fundamentals that drive consumer behavior, not short-term infatuation with bells and whistles. When the iPad came out, many sounded the death knell for the Kindle. You have to admit, the iPad was, and still is, pretty slick, and on first appearance, Kindle's future looked bleak. Nick Bilton's NY Times post "Third-Generation Kindle Is Top Seller" talks about how Amazon was able to stay in the game. From my perspective, Amazon succeeds because they understand the psychological shift taking place in our technology-rich environment. It's not about the tools, it's about what we want to do with the tools. Amazon understands that, ultimately, it's about user experience and meaning. As I wrote in a recent post (15 Techno-Cultural Trends for 2011), we will increasingly see a shift in focus from the thrill of owning cool technology to the goals of using it. Amazon is positioning itself to catch the … [Read more...]
The Big Switch: Trading in my BlackBerry for a Droid
So it comes to this: I am part of the first new revolution. Technology has changed our fundamental expectations about how things should work. One of those things is access to information. We want information on-demand. More importantly, we want the information we need on demand. Most of don’t even realize our expectations have shifted. (And worse, most companies don’t either.) I have been a loyal BlackBerry user for a number of years. Right now I have the BlackBerry Tour. But after last night, I’m switching to a Droid. (I use Verizon, so iPhone isn’t an option here.) This new commitment to change happened because I got lost. At night. In the rain. Like a good social media observer, I was on my way to a Meetup event in a town where I don’t know my way around. Sure, I had the full complement of electronics in my car: Garmin, Blackberry, laptop, and iPad. Garmin didn’t help because I didn’t have the right address and in a moment of over-confidence, I … [Read more...]
How Media Psychology Contributes to Ergonomics
I received the following thoughtful question: Human factors are investigated under the scientific discipline called Ergonomics for comprehending human cognition, or the brain system, in order to design information systems within human factor limitations. How are ergonomics and media psychology related? Human physiology and cognition are obviously central issues to ergonomics and they take into account human development across the lifespan from that perspective. Media psychology also looks at the experiential aspects of human interaction with objects and environments across the lifespan. It extends the usability to the perceptions of self and self-reflection, such as, identity, self-efficacy (competence), engagement and flow (in contrast to attention), persuasion, qualitative perceptions of aesthetics, and attribution or the meaning we give to our interactions. For example: Did this experience make me feel competent or incompetent? Did I feel able to make a good … [Read more...]
