Every day we make thousands of small decisions. We like to think that these decisions are conscious and rational. However, the latest advances in cognitive psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience show that this is often not the case. In this session Andy will look at some of the most common “cognitive biases” and how concepts of trust, reciprocity, social proof and liking are used by sales people and marketers around the world to persuade people to do their bidding.

Using examples ranging from architecture to menu design, Andy will show how these time honored techniques can be employed on the web. The result is not only a site that looks good and is free of usability errors, it’s a site that’s designed around the way we think and optimized for the maximum return on investment to know to become a master in online persuasion.

The nature of consumer experiences are changing. A great product or service is no longer just defined by a singular iconic design. A great experience is one that allows others to participate in its development, to add to it, to change it and to extend its uses. To be successful at a large scale, designers need to consider the opportunities for an ecosystem to emerge around their experiences.

But how do you grow a community around a product, around a service, around the whole experience? How do you design to allows the community to build on it and make it their own? Drawing on recent experience building a new mobile ecosystem, this session will illustrate new approaches for experience design that encourage community participation and methods for attracting a community to your product and services.

A few years ago, the financial management software company Intuit began seeing flattening growth and declining net promoter scores. The company founder and leadership commenced a company wide call to arms regarding innovation.

The issue — this call from the top was expressed through powerpoint and no road to action. Fast forward four years, the innovation pipeline is bursting, net promoter scores are rising, and Intuit posted one of its best years in a global economic downturn. So, what happened? A small group of employees started a bottom’s up revolution leveraging many existing company execution levers and subsequently changed a culture. Design Director, Joseph O’Sullivan will discuss the experience and lessons learned.

The web is evolving. Fast. As designers working in this volatile medium we face a challenge to deliver solutions for a ‘fluid web’, one in which our content is consumed across a growing range of devices, all with different characteristics. At first glance this challenge can appear overwhelming, however, by marrying fundamental web standards with timeless design principles, we can create beautifully designed user experiences that not only stand the test of time, but deliver regardless of context.

Craftsmanship and communication are at the heart of everything we do on the web. With our ability to understand and overcome challenges, we should deliver engaging experiences without compromising our integrity or failing the end user. Still, we’re often naive and we make the same mistakes over and over. We get hung up on our tools and confuse our goals. It’s time to think and talk smarter, get our priorities straight, and learn from our mistakes.