How to make customers feel good about doing what you want Learn how companies make us feel good about doing what they want. Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we’re susceptible to certain persuasive techniques. Packed with examples from every nook and cranny of the web, it provides easily digestible and applicable patterns for putting these design techniques to work. Organized by the seven deadly sins, it includes: Pride — use social proof to position your product in line with your visitors’ values Sloth — build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go Gluttony — escalate customers’ commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there Anger — understand the power of metaphysical arguments and anonymity Envy — create a culture of status around your product and feed aspirational desires Lust — turn desire into commitment by using emotion to defeat rational behavior Greed — keep customers engaged by reinforcing the behaviors you desire Now you too can leverage human fallibility to create powerful persuasive interfaces that people will love to use — but will you use your new knowledge for good or evil? Learn more on the companion website, evilbydesign.info.

A surprising and intriguing examination of how scarcity—and our flawed responses to it—shapes our lives, our society, and our culture

No American metropolis has intervened in its housing market quite as aggressively as New York since World War II - and yet none is as burdened by the scarcity, poor quality, uneven distribution, and high cost of its rental housing stock. Why, after half a century of rent control, public housing programs, tax abatements, and land use regulation, is it so difficult for thousands of New Yorkers to find, rent, or maintain decent apartments? Addressing issues that are hotly debated in the Big Apple and other cities across the nation, Peter Salins and Gerard Mildner analyze New York's policies and assess their largely detrimental effects on housing quality and availability. They show how programs that were instituted for the benefit of both investors and the poor - by directly and indirectly subsidizing housing construction and by capping rents - have instead caused misallocation of housing, exacerbated tensions between tenants and landlords, progressively stifled private investment, and resulted in building deterioration and abandonment. Scarcity by Design is an object lesson in what governments should not do if they wish to improve housing and maintain communities. The authors make a strong case for deregulation: arguing from a free-market perspective, Salins and Mildner clearly demonstrate how transition to a fully deregulated, unsubsidized housing market would alleviate the social and economic woes of New York's tenants. They present deregulation as the essential stimulus of housing production, fair pricing, and good maintenance. The authors' crisply written analysis of New York's housing problems and their proposed solutions will enlighten citizens, city managers, investors, builders, and urban planners, and should spark discussions in academic as well as professional circles

Architects, development practitioners and designers are working in a global environment and issues such as environmental and cultural sustainability matter more than ever. Past interactions and interventions between developed and developing countries have often been unequal and inappropriate. We now need to embrace fresh design practices based on respect for diversity and equality, participation and empowerment. This book explores what it means for development activists to practise architecture on a global scale, and provides a blueprint for developing architectural practices based on reciprocal working methods. The content is based on real situations - through extended field research and contacts with architecture schools and architects, as well as participating NGOs. It demonstrates that the ability to produce appropriate and sustainable design is increasingly relevant, whether in the field of disaster relief, longer-term development or wider urban contexts, both in rich countries and poor countries.