Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Made to stick analyses the aspects that make an idea stick. After an extensive research the authors came up with 6 principles that make an idea stick, and they can be contained in SUCCES (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories). Reading this book was a great experience, it’s very practical and the lessons learned can be used in different areas of my life, but of course in this blog I want to analyze the applications for the web.

I recommend the book, and I will write some other posts trying to analyze some “ideas” from the web through this 6 basic principles.

Simple

Simplicity is the key! If people don’t get what you want to tell quick they will loose attention (leave your page). Go direct to the point, always assume people wont read more than the first paragraph on your web page, that can help you communicate better.

Unexpected

Surprise people, give them something they didn’t expect. Careful with this one, because abusing of this principle can lead in to other problems, specially in user interfaces.

Concrete

Just tell the users exactly how they will benefit from taking an action. Abstractions are hard to understand and hard to remember. Don’t tell your users how their company will benefit from them signing up, tell them how they will benefit from it. After you convince them you start talking about other benefits.

Credible

Why would they believe you? The book talks about some strategies used to create credibility, 100% worth reading.

Emotional

It’s easier to remember stuff when emotions are involved. Emotions make people care about your idea.

Stories

A lot of people have been talking about story-telling on the web, and the book emphasizes how stories can be a very strong helper to make your ideas stick.