Think Blink: Malcolm Gladwell's Lessons for Web Design, Part 1

(Part 2, Part 3)

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, published in January and one of the best-selling books of 2005 to date, is a cogent, thought-provoking analysis of a number of complex phenomena (much like 2002's The Tipping Point).  Blink is subtitled "The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," and Gladwell's three-part thesis can be summarized as follows: 1) We make snap decisions all the time, based on a tiny amount of information (such as a first impression, or an instinctive feeling), something Gladwell calls "thin slicing"; 2) We mistrust these decisions, but they're often demonstrably better than ones resulting from lengthy deliberation (i.e. "thick slicing"); and 3) Our instinctive judgments can mislead us, so it's important to understand when and why that happens and to train ourselves to make more effective use of them.

I think Blink has much to tell us about how we act online and how websites should be designed, starting with the idea that site users readily and frequently make snap judgments, or to use Gladwell's term, they "thin slice."

Thin Slicing and the Adaptive Unconscious

Gladwell defines "thin slicing" as "the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience." [Blink, p. 23]  The source of this ability is our "adaptive unconscious," a concept explored by psychologist Timothy Wilson in his book Strangers to Ourselves.  It's worth quoting Gladwell at length here:

The adaptive unconscious is not to be confused with the unconscious described by Sigmund Freud, which was a dark and murky place filled with desires and memories and fantasies that were too disturbing for us to think about consciously.  This new notion of the adaptive unconscious is thought of, instead, as a kind of giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings... [As Wilson writes:] "The mind operates most efficiently by relegating a good deal of high-level sophisticated thinking to the unconscious...The adaptive unconscious does an excellent job of sizing up the world, warning people of danger, setting goals, and initiating action in a sophisticated and efficient manner."

Chapter One of Blink is devoted to demonstrating that thin slicing works, that people can and do often make better decisions when they act instinctively.  I'm not going to debate the efficacy of thin slicing here--if you care to argue with the concept, I'm sure you can find a willing partner somewhere.  I'm simply going to take it as a given that people do thin slice, and they will continue to do so because they find that it works well.

Thin Slicing Online

Look at Gladwell's quote from Timothy Wilson: "Sizing up the world...setting goals...initiating action."  All steps taken by a user upon arriving at your site.  (Let's hope that they don't need to be "warned of danger.")

It's clear that the online environment is one in which our adaptive unconscious can play a significant role.  When users arrive at your website--especially, but not only, first time users--they're thin slicing.  They're going to make relatively fast decisions on the basis of relatively little information, to determine how--or even whether--they should proceed.  To be effective, your site must anticipate your users' snap judgments and meet with their approval immediately.  You probably won't have many chances, so your site has to make the most of every opportunity.

Two factors are raising the stakes in this process, making it even more likely that users will thin slice online and act instinctively, rather than deliberately.  First, the increasing number of websites competing for users' attention means that less time is available to devote to understanding any one site.  Users avoid information overload by making fast decisions, and they do that by thin slicing.

And second, the increasing standardization of online design means that users are bringing an increasingly normalized set of expectations about what your site should look like, how it should be organized, and what they can do there.  (Jakob Nielsen recently described this process in his May 23 Alertbox on the Canonical Intranet Homepage, but his conclusions are relevant for internet sites as well.)

(Part 2, Part 3)

Comments

[Mihai Nadin]

Unfortunately, there is no factual basis to Gladwell's adaptive unconscious. Cognitive processes correspond to the complexity of the dynamics of human activity. Adaptive aspects are important, but to place them in the obscure world of the unconscius only because we do not have a better understannding of them does not help. Autonomic processes in the complex living system we call the human being are probably better suited to help us understand the dynamics of the human interaction.

[Ed Batista]

Thanks, Mihai. My sense was that Gladwell used "adaptive unconscious" as a convenient label for a range of associated-but-distinct mental and physiological processes. If you object to his word choice, that's certainly your prerogative, but it clearly resonated with the public. Would another term have been more accurate? Perhaps, but it may not have had the same resonance--and I think we're better served with his ideas in wide circulation.