A recent Wired article discussed the dangers of trying to influence users through nudging — the practice of structuring a person’s choices in such a way as to get a desired result. It highlighted one of the key dynamics facing today’s high-tech companies as they shift from relatively independent creators of “whiz-bang” software to full-fledged consumer-oriented businesses. This tension between following your bliss and taking into account the expectations of others can be a tough cultural change for some companies.

As corporate self-interest becomes more important than user satisfaction, the nudging company’s approach to consumers becomes fragmented and incoherent.

The target of the article was Facebook but it could just as easily be applied to anything from politics to parenting. I remember learning pretty quickly that if I wanted my five-year-old daughter to put on a sweater, I didn’t come right out and ask her if she wanted to put on a sweater … I asked her if she wanted to put on the red sweater or the blue sweater. Sheer genius. Of course, as she got older, she got wise to my evil machinations and the nudging approach started to fail.

The problem for businesses is that their customers are at least as savvy as young children and these people get frustrated when websites, surveys, or automated phone menus don’t offer up reasonable choices (or even try and trick them into doing something they don’t want to). This type of behavior can contribute to reduced customer satisfaction, lost revenues and lower brand value.

As I was flipping through the stations on the TV the other day, I became particularly aware of the slight delay between the time I pressed the button on the remote and the actual change of the channel. This is one of those minor annoyances that shouldn’t bother anyone but it just seems weird that all the amazing technological advances in television (high-definition picture, thousands of channels to choose from) should come at the cost of the “crispness” in performance that I remember from the old analog broadcasts.

The lack of responsiveness really becomes noticeable during casual browsing. The two- or three-second pause between channel clicks appears to be much longer than the amount of time the average human needs to evaluate the onscreen content. This sets you up for a lot of waiting and really has a negative impact on the user’s experience. If you have cable, you can use the guide feature, of course, but it just doesn’t provide the same satisfaction as a good, old-fashioned, rapid-fire channel surf.

In a recent article, Jacob Nielsen revisited the topic of website response times and noted that delays of even a few seconds can contribute to an unpleasant user experience. He highlights three basic response speeds and how they relate to the human attention span:

• 0.1 seconds provides a user with the feeling of an instantaneous response — a level of responsiveness that is essential to supporting the feeling of direct manipulation.
• 1 second keeps the user’s flow of thought seamless and still allows them to feel in control. This degree of responsiveness is needed for good navigation.
• 10 seconds keeps the user’s attention but they are starting to feel that they are at the mercy of the computer and wish it was faster. After 10 seconds, their mind starts to wander.

These limits would apply equally well to an established technology like television.