Omnichannel workshop

To create engaging and effective digital experiences, it helps to have a solid understanding of user-centred psychology. By taking advantage of people’s perceptual tendencies, cognitive biases, and very human susceptibilities to emotional experience and social influence, designers and content professionals have proven able to create compelling, even addictive, screen-based experiences.

But now we are entering a new frontier. Our digital interactions have been primarily visual, but we are now moving towards a more holistic experience – one that encompasses conversational UIs, the Internet of Things and wearable tech. How can an understanding of key psychological principles help us design effectively for these new opportunities?

In this session, we will give attendees an introduction to user-centred psychology, identifying and explaining the ideas and research findings that help designers create effective desktop and mobile experiences. We will then move beyond the screen, and explore the challenges and opportunities presented by new interfaces. Throughout, we will remind ourselves that while technology changes rapidly, human needs do not.

We will use the travel industry as a case study, and consider how providers currently use principles of perception, emotion, social influence, and behavioural economics to create engaging and persuasive screen-based experiences. We will then look at what is available in terms of new technologies and how these could be applied to travel. Using the psychological principles discussed throughout the session, we will work in groups to identify gaps and then come up with creative solutions that take advantage of the possibilities offered by new technologies and interfaces (e.g., voice, wearable tech).