Fi Group Therapy: Magic & Design
Slides:
You can download the pdf with the slides for this presentation here: jensfischer.us/grouptherapy/Design&Magic.pdf
What's "Group Therapy"?
As an interactive firm, we work in one of the most multidisciplinary fields out there and personally I think that this is the beauty of my daily work and that this multidisciplinary is why I will never get bored of doing what I do. At the same time though, we live in a time where the nature of projects we do and the type of applications we use requires a higher and higher degree of specialization. For this reason, it is very easy to lose sight of what is going on beyond one’s own nose. It’s the reason why internal communication of the team is more important than ever. This is what the "Group Therapy" is about. Basically it's a one-hour presentation about a random topic of the individual presenter's choice. The wide variety of possible topics is what makes those presentations so interesting. Sometimes a developer might simply explain the latest technologies in ”lay terms” to the less geeky half of the team, but then there are also presentations that might talk about how free-climbing can make you a better designer. And that’s the most interesting aspect about the Group Therapy; to see how sometimes things which at first might seem relatively unrelated to our daily work, can somehow be the most inspirational ones.
Group Therapy 1 // David Copperfield would be an amazing Interaction Designer
1. What is Design?
- Explanation of complex things by breaking it down to the concentrated essential. In this case: Explaining the design process with the help of the word "Germany", that - even though it technically means the same (denotation) - stands for 3 different things if you use a different font (connotation)...
- Categorization of design by analyzing the communication flow between designer/sender and user/reciever
- Magic works the same way as design (interaction design in particular)
- Many categories of magic exist, this presentation will focus on mental magic, math magic and sleight of hands
- All forms of magic have in common, that the magician creates and orchestrates an experience for the viewer. People take reality for granted because it seems so simple, but that's because its complexity is hidden behind the scenes.
- The interesting part is that we fall for this, even though we know we are going to be tricked. In conclusion that means that we WANT to be tricked. The belief in magic protects us from the complexity and becoming aware of the fact that we don't understand that complexity. (I.e. water-faucet and electric-outlets in the wall: Do we REALLY know to a 100% how this works, or do we accept it as a partially magical process?)
- We suck at Math, but at the same time we base our decisions and behavior on it.
- Partially the problem is how we are being taught and that we lack the training to compare huge numbers that we have no real relation to. Our Math skills are very subjective. I.e.: We would never think a person with a thousand dollars in the bank is as rich as a person with a million in the bank, but we are more likely to throw millionaires and billionaires in the same category...
- Another example how we asses risks, i.e. the chances of dying when on a plane vs. the chances of dying when driving a car.
- Flawed Logic through faulty Math: Day by day we base our decisions on wrong & totally subjective assumptions.
- The amazing Randi: former illusionist who challenged everyone who claims to be able to perform magic or possess a supernatural power. If Randi can be convinced that it's not an illusion, the person would win a million dollars. So far not a single person has won it. Randi was able to see through every single trick, with a famous example being Uri Gellar (the spoon bender).
- Psychics and Horoscopes work with simple psychological tricks, that are blatantly obvious when analyzed
- Those tricks work though because the client is there for a reason, which means the client WANTS to believe that it is not a trick
- "Cold Reading": Gaining basic information without prior knowledge. The psychic reads body language, age, clothing & fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc... This information will then be used to gain the trust of the client, to make him believe, and then get more information without raising suspicion...
- "Shotgunning": A shotgun is a weapon that fires a wide load, covering a broad area, so that a huge percentage of the shot misses, but somewhere, something will get hit for sure... This technique can be used by psychics, to cover a lot of different things in one sentence, to dramatically increase the chances of having one hit in many misses... The client will then focus on the one hit and forget about all the misses... I.e.: I see a heart problem with a father figure in your family, a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a cousin... I'm definitely seeing chest pain here for a father figure in your family...
- Barnum Statements: This technique says something that is true for a huge percentage of people, therefore being very likely to be true for the person in question as well. That person sees the statement in a subjective way tho, just focusing on that it's true for themselves and forgetting about that it's probably true for everyone else as well. I.e.: "I sense that you are sometimes insecure, especially with people you don't know very well."
- Rainbow Ruse: To give every possible option in one sentence, therefore never being wrong. I.e. "Most of the time you're very cheerful, but there also has been a time in your life when you were not."
- Many examples from before work, because the person in question analyzes things in a very subjective way
- Wording of a question can influence the outcome. One example is to ask people to make a decision as a general, whose army of 600 people is surrounded by enemies. If the question is "A: 200 survive, B: 1/3 chance all survive, 2/3 chance all die" people are more likely to pick option one. The word survive makes this option sound more attractive. If the options would have been "A: 400 die, B: 1/3 chance all survive, 2/3 chance all die" people are more likely to take the gamble. Technically it is the same situation, with the same outcomes, but option A now has the word "die" which makes it sound less attractive.
- Same way of thinking "FREE" things are always more attractive than things we have to pay for, even though the paid things might actually be of better value.
- Choices distract us from what we really want
- Exploited in business techniques (i.e. software packages light/regular/pro)
- Relative Comparison: When we have no clue what is the best choice, we compare the choices that are given to us relatively to each other. Often simply based on price. People are usually more likely to go for the middle to upper-middle range price, no matter what the value is... (i.e. restaurant menu or buying TV)
- Magician duo Penn & Teller have seven principles of sleight of hand techniques. All of those principles can be found in one way or another in interaction design...
- Palm - to hold an object in an apparently empty hand
- Ditch - to secretly dispose of an unneeded object
- Steal - to secretly obtain a needed object
- Switch - to secretly exchange on object for another
- Load - Secretly move an object to where it is needed
- Misdirection - to lead attention away from a secret move
- Simulation - to give the impression that something that has not happened, has
- Magic and Interaction Design share many psychological and technical elements that can be used by designers and magicians to create & orchestrate an experience for their audience. The way of thinking, analyzing, planning and performing/executing are so similar, that it is safe to say that a successful magician can understand and apply principles of interaction design and vice versa...
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xulqarnain
30 months ago
Wow brother, great Post. Thanks a lot for sharing.
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artificest...
30 months ago
The bit with the three doors (1 having a car) is from the movie 21.
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Tekkaman S...
30 months ago
Wonderful post, thanks for sharing.
I have a feature request and maybe you've already thought of this. You have several videos in a row and it's a bit of a pain to keep hitting play on the next video. Have you thought about on the admin side, when a video is uploaded and then sorted that a button or icon could be clicked per video that says flow into the next frame element. So on the user side when I'm watching a video, it'll play into the next media element regardless if it's a video or image. The user could have the option to turn this on or off. So it would almost be like if the value of media item is true, then go to next media item. Or maybe it's as simple as putting a slideshow button near the collapse button on the user side that reads the end of the FLV and moves on to the next one.
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vitanov
30 months ago
Thanks, Thanks....
Thanks for sharing.
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Author
Jens Fischer
30 months ago
Quoted from: artificest... - "The bit with the three doors (1 having a car) is from the movie 21."
true, but the original is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
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alxbertrand
26 months ago
Very informative post on the way you work @Fi. Thank you for sharing this with us.
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