I have used browser pop-up ad blockers for years. An ad-blocker is a small element of internet browsers that are widely-used and, more recently, have appeared for blocking ads in mobile apps; in short, they do what the name says.
The result is that banners, full-page ads and Google's AdWords, and in general any form of online advertising has disappeared from our lives. Suddenly, websites load more quickly and your mobile rate limit does not end so quickly. They even have them for the free version of Spotify, lowering the volume when an audio or video ad begins.
I am a bad person.
For years I have also devoted my time to web design and specifically User Experience Design. User Experience Design (UXD) is the process for knowing what, how, when, where and why people use a system of information –website, app, video game, cash machine or teletext– in order to provide a visual and interactive design that makes life easier. A good user experience design empowers people and provides control over their actions so they can achieve their objectives efficiently, whether it be a 90-year-old grandmother taking money out of a cash machine or her grandson killing enemies in Call of Duty.
The economist and sociologist, Herbert Simon, Nobel prize winner for economy in 1978 and creator of the discipline, attention economy, postulated that "in an environment of abundant information the scarce asset is attention." Let us translate this to contemporary times, to the digital environment and abundant user experiences. Netflix, Facebook, mobile apps and this article all compete for the same thing: your attention. The day always has the same number of hours, when the user's unique experiences are a case of eat or be eaten, but now the offer is virtually infinite.
So how do Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or this website compete for your attention? Well, by lying. Their experience design is not to make your life easier but to make you stay for the longest time possible by pretending to do the opposite. To be clear, all the time you spend on Facebook, you are not searching on Google and therefore the search engine stops earning money from publicity. Thus, Google .
The more we use a certain service, the more value it has to a potential advertiser, as we must remember that the clients of these services are not us, but rather the advertisers who pay to be there. We are the product that, in small, aggregate ways, the advertisers are purchasing.
Perhaps in the end I am not such a bad person.
The result is that banners, full-page ads and Google's AdWords, and in general any form of online advertising has disappeared from our lives. Suddenly, websites load more quickly and your mobile rate limit does not end so quickly. They even have them for the free version of Spotify, lowering the volume when an audio or video ad begins.
I am a bad person.
For years I have also devoted my time to web design and specifically User Experience Design. User Experience Design (UXD) is the process for knowing what, how, when, where and why people use a system of information –website, app, video game, cash machine or teletext– in order to provide a visual and interactive design that makes life easier. A good user experience design empowers people and provides control over their actions so they can achieve their objectives efficiently, whether it be a 90-year-old grandmother taking money out of a cash machine or her grandson killing enemies in Call of Duty.
The economist and sociologist, Herbert Simon, Nobel prize winner for economy in 1978 and creator of the discipline, attention economy, postulated that "in an environment of abundant information the scarce asset is attention." Let us translate this to contemporary times, to the digital environment and abundant user experiences. Netflix, Facebook, mobile apps and this article all compete for the same thing: your attention. The day always has the same number of hours, when the user's unique experiences are a case of eat or be eaten, but now the offer is virtually infinite.
So how do Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or this website compete for your attention? Well, by lying. Their experience design is not to make your life easier but to make you stay for the longest time possible by pretending to do the opposite. To be clear, all the time you spend on Facebook, you are not searching on Google and therefore the search engine stops earning money from publicity. Thus, Google .
The more we use a certain service, the more value it has to a potential advertiser, as we must remember that the clients of these services are not us, but rather the advertisers who pay to be there. We are the product that, in small, aggregate ways, the advertisers are purchasing.
Perhaps in the end I am not such a bad person.
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