How to Minimize Home Buyers Remorse:

Why is it that we experience buyers remorse when we purchase a new home?  One of the reasons could be that everything is unfamiliar about the new house.  I recently moved into a new house and had questioned the decision for a very long time.  Last night, I was driving home listening to the radio when I realized that I was driving the route to my house without thinking about it.  It occurred to me that when I first moved in, I had to think about every stoplight and every turn as I was learning the quickest path.  This process of learning is a cause of frustration in itself.  Whenever you learn something new, your mind is literally being rewired as you practice the new task.  After a while, you become proficient at the new task and you mind can work on auto pilot, allowing you to focus on other things and reducing the anxiety.  You can learn more about this concept in an earlier article that I wrote about How People Learn.

When you purchase a new home, every single task that you took for granted has to be re-learned.  The location of the silverware drawer, where you keep your keys, even where the toilet paper is in relation to the toilet.  While your body and mind are learning to coordinate each of these activities, you will naturally feel frustrated.  This felling of frustration compounds any other doubts that you may have had about the home that you chose such as did you pick the right school district and is the commute too long.  After you have learned your way around the house as well as the path to common destinations such as the grocery store and work, you can begin to function on auto pilot and the new home owner feeling begins to subside.  Your body begins to work from muscle memory as you perform tasks in your new environment without thinking about it.

So what can you do to minimize this initial frustration?  The short answer is that repetition is the only cure so you need to begin to standardize on the way that you do things as quickly as possible.  Even before you start putting dishes away in the kitchen, put labels on the outside of the cabinets and drawers for commonly used items.  Mark the silverware drawer, the utensil drawer and where you put the glasses, plates and pots and pans.  The labels will provide support until you can automatically reach into a drawer and find what you are looking for.

The same goes for other areas of the house.  Decide early what each of the rooms will be used for and how you will refer to them.  Is the spare room called the guest bedroom, the den or the play room?  Put tape over the door handles of any doors that might not be needed that often such as a hallway door that holds the water heater but looks like it might be a closet.  Put labels where other things may be installed or placed on the floor as a placeholder for where they will go.  This makes it clear what work has to be done and starts to give you some sense of orientation in a room that may only have a pile of boxes.  I like to use blue painters tape with a black Sharpie for this task.  The black on blue is a good contrast and the blue tape is designed to peel off without leaving any residue.  Another good use for the tape is to put tape over any light switches that are not critical.  That way you don't waste time turning on the garbage disposal when you are trying to find the kitchen light switch.

Real estate agents can also help with the task of orienting clients to the new neighbor hood.  After the new house is in escrow, take some time to drive with your clients around to common destinations.  The client should drive their car, while the agent sits in the passenger seat.  Make a list of destinations to drive to and then make a series of mini trips starting from the house each time.  Choose places such as the grocery store, a good place for dinner and the school if applicable.  For each trip be sure to start and end at the house so the patch to the new location can be determined.  Be sure to drive through the parking lot to the front of the building so any minor annoyances such as no left turn areas can be flushed out.  Driving together will not only give the homeowner the chance to learn the routes, but will also give the agent a chance to point out other stores that the homeowner might find useful such as a bank or drug store.

Buying a new a home is a major commitment that can produce financial and social anxiety.  This anxiety is compounded by the amount of new things that you must learn.  Only repetition can make the uncomfortable feel comfortable so get started living in your new environment.  With time you will have settled in and can't imagine living any place else.

How People Learn

I recently started a new job and the first couple of months were very frustrating   Although I was very excited in the beginning, I soon became frustrated at not knowing my way around the company and who to call to resolve problems.  I then remembered the Situation Leadership II model that I had learned by Ken Blanchard.  The model states that people go through four stages of learning and as a manger you, should change your management style to match the stage of your employee.  First, they are excited but clueless, next, they are frustrated and lost, in the third stage they are competent but do not realize it then finally they are successful and confident.  This concept is similar to the adage about high-school students.  As a freshmen, you think you know everything but you know nothing, as a sophomore, you know nothing and you realize it.  When you are a junior you know everything but do not realize it and as a senior you know everything and you know it.

The Situational Leadership II Model

A managers style changes with the progression of the employee

Source:

As the employee progresses through the stage, the manger varies the amount of encouragement and direction.  In the beginning the employee needs little encouragement but a lot of direction.  In second stage, the employee needs clear direction as well as a great amount of emotional support.  In the third stage, the manager should provide strong emotional support but less direction.  Finally, the employee can work independently with little guidance from their manager.

This model is very similar to the concepts in the book called "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment  by George Leonard.  The book describes a similar pattern path that people take to reach success.  In the beginning, you are excited, then you as you begin to practice, you get frustrated because the task is hard.  If you stick with it, you become competent but reach a plateau.  Finally after months of practice, with no change in results you have a breakthrough and reach a new level of mastery.  Unfortunately, many people tend to stop at the second stage when things get tough.  Imagine the person taking up golf.  They go to the store and buy all the right clothes and the best set of clubs and after the first lesson they quit because they can't hit the ball.  Mr. Leonard refers to this type of person as the "Dabbler".  They get excited about something new and then when they realize it is hard they quit before they have a chance to develop the skill.

The "Dabbler" quits when a new task becomes too hard.

Source

So why is it so hard to learn something and why do we get so frustrated in the early stages?  The answer lies in two concepts, Muscle Memory and Procedural Memory.  When you first start to do a task like swinging a golf club, you brain needs to direct every muscle in your body involved with the task.  At the same time your brain is recording each of the actions.  With so many things going on at once, there are bound to be problems and you rarely hit the ball in a straight line.

With consistent practice, your brain records the movements until they become second nature.  You can then perform the task without thinking.  Over time, your brain has literally become rewired.  It is this rewiring process that causes so much pain and frustration.  The same thing happens with Procedural Memory.  When you drive the same route to work, you brain creates an internal map.  After several weeks of commuting, you can leave your office and arrive home and not recall where you have been.  Your brain has been working on autopilot making turns without your conscious input.

The important thing to remember from all of this, is that it is the repetition that leads to mastery.  When you first start a task, your body and brain must focus all it's energy in order to be successful   This concentration can even be mentally and physically draining.  Without a good coach, you may fail at your task and become discouraged from trying again.  With positive feedback, your body continues to refine the model and create a stronger and stronger internal ability.  Eventually, you can perform the task without engaging your active brain and you are able to focus on higher levels of strategy to be successful.

Many products seem to ignore these stages of learning.  How many times, have you tried a recipe from a cookbook once and if it did not come out correct, you gave up?  Only by trying the same recipe several times can you become successful.  To help you along this path, products should encourage the customer to repeat a process until they have become successful.  For example, a cookbook could only have five recipes   On each page there are boxes where you can record the date you tried the recipe, how it came out and what you would do to change it next time.  After cooking the same recipe for five times, the person should be able to do the recipe without looking at the book.  There could be a series of such books. The first would be soups, the next casseroles, then breads and so on.

The smartphone is a perfect feedback system to encourage people to continue practicing a new task until they have achieved mastery.  The trick is to limit the task so the person can become successful in a small number of tries, provide some kind of feedback so the person can learn from their mistakes and to encourage the user when they are frustrated and want to give up (hint- have people upload their frustrations to a social network, it may prove very therapeutic).

By recognizing the stages that people go through when learning a new task and helping the user along the journey as their mind and body is transformed, companies can help people achieve goals that the person never thought they were capable of.

Improving Home Security with your TV

When buglers are deciding what house to rob, one of the critical factors is, "is the owner home?"  When you go on vacation, it is always important to have your neighbors pick up the mail and the newspapers so things do not pile up in front of your house.  People also have lights on timers that turn on at night to make the house lived in.  Unfortunately, setting the lights on timers can be difficult and you have to decide which lights to turn
on.  A bright light only in the front room will still make the house look empty.

TV Light coming from a window

Source: http://faketv.com/

There is one exception to this rule and that is having a single TV on in a room.  Many times when you drive by a house, the entire house will be dark except for the TV light coming from a window.  This usually means someone is watching TV before bedtime.  If a burglar sees the TV light, they will typically move on to the next house.  So how can you take advantage of this fact?

Here is how it would work.  TV manufactures should add a option to the menu that allows the TV to turn on and off for a certain time period each day.  The channel could periodically change. The volume would be set at a level that is a little louder than normal viewing.  If you have dish network or comcast, just leave the reciver box on for your vacation.

When a burgler drives by your home, they would see the lights flickering from the TV and hear the sound and think that someone is home and move on to the next house.  Of course this would not work if your TV is in the front room visible from the street.  It would work better if the TV were in a back room where no one can see who is watching the TV.

By adding a menu option that turns the TV on at specific times during a vacation, TV manufactures can create the illusion that someone is still in the house causing burglars to move to the next house.  This should add no cost to the TV but should provide piece of mind to the owner.

PS. While searching for images for this article, I came across the following company that does this very task expect they sell a stand alone LED device that mimics the TV light in a room.  http://faketv.com/

How to use behavioral science to increase your product’s value.

Much has been written on the utilitarian concept of Form Follows Function and how Emotional Design can be used to create a bond between a product and its owner.  This article focuses on using behavioral science to modify your product such that the modification encourages behavior that is beneficial to the customer.

Behavioral design uses a stimulus to cause people to act in a predictable manner.  The red coils of an electric stove-top are one example.  The red color changes people’s behavior by causing them to keep their hands away from the coil.  Remove the stimulus and people will burn their hands.  To create value, this behavior must be beneficial to the customer not just the parent company.  In this case, it is beneficial to the customer to prevent burns.

Identify Customer Needs:
The first step in behavioral design is to identify the needs of your customers.  People don’t want to take airplane rides because they are fun.  They fly to get to a destination quickly so they can perform some other task.  Closets are not a storage location for clothes, they are a place where people create an image for others to see and select the appropriate protection from the elements.

How do customers use your product?
The second step is to understand how your customers interact with your product.  Do people turn the stove on before they place a pot or afterwards?  If you pick up an office phone with your dominant hand, then your weaker hand must dial the number.  Also pay attention to how people abuse your product.  Does the laundry basket get so full that the clothes do not fit into the washing machine causing people to overload the washing machine?  Is food left to rot in the bottom crisper drawers because people don’t see the food?  Do people leave old unread email in their inbox for several years?

Create Stimulus:
The third step is to include a stimulus that modifies the behavior in the second step that helps people meet the needs from the first step.  Putting a mark on the closet rod tells people when their closet may have too many clothes.

The stimulus can be created by using the following cognitive biases:

Default Heuristic:  People often accept whatever the default choice is.  To protect people from losses in the stock market, online brokerages should set a default stop loss.

Framing: Modifying the way the people view the world.  Showing people where to place a heater increases the efficiency of the heater.

Anchoring: Introducing a value that people use as a reference of normalcy.  Telling people to set their watches to the new timezone on intercontinental flight helps recover from jet lag quicker.

Eliminate Mental Calculations:  When people try to make a mental calculation, they are usually wrong.  Provide guidance that helps people make accurate calculations and therefore make better decisions.  If there is one inch of milk left in a milk carton, can I give my two children a glass of milk each at bed time and in the morning or do I have to go shopping tonight?

The important part about the stimululas is that is it should not have a significant impact to the cost of the product.  It should be something simple such as color coding, relevant information or a modified UI.  These are not engineering solutions.

By using cognitive design companies can improve the value of their products, increase differentiation and help customers meet their needs with very little increase in cost of the product.

How kayak companies can help your marriage.

Marriage is a complex partnership.  Two people agree to work together towards undefined goals for the rest of their life.  One of the most difficult parts of marriage is that it can be difficult to know when you are being successful.  Even when you have material wealth, there can be an emptiness in the relationship.  Communication is also critical.  When there is open communication, marriage is easy, but when the communication breaks down so does the relationship.  Marriage counselors try to rebuild this communication in order to get the relationship back on track.

Paddling a tandem kayak is also a complex relationship.  The person in the front sets stroke rate but the person in the back is responsible for steering the boat.  To complicate matters, the person in back can barely hear the person in front.  Both people must agree where to go and how fast to get there.  When you are out of sync with your partner, your paddles collide, the boat stops and yelling at each other does not solve the problem.  When things really break down, both people may end up swimming in very cold water.

This couple could not agree on their heading.  Now look at them.

Obviously, if a married couple cannot communicate on land, it is a bad idea for them to be in small boat where they must depend on each other.  However, this is exactly the market that kayak companies should pursue.

Here is how it would work.  Tandem kayak companies should first work with a marriage counselor to define a mini program on couples therapy including a list of communication do’s and don’ts.  After the program is defined, the kayak company should use framing to advertise the new program to troubled couples.  Call it kayak couples therapy.

The day of the trip, the guide would review the program and set expectations.  Communication guidelines and teamwork emphasis would be mixed in with paddling technique and discussions about the surrounding water.  Roles would be agreed to and goals set.  On the water coaching would fine tune the paddling technique and remind everyone of the ground rules.

This program would work because a tandem kayak is a controlled environment.  Initial conversation is limited to the task at hand.  By following the rules outlined ahead of time, people quickly begin to paddle in sync and the boat moves forward.  This teamwork creates instant gratification and evidence of success which can be difficult to observe in a marriage.  The couple quickly sees that when they communicate clearly and work together, they can be successful.

Evidence of success of clear communication.

By creating a couples kayak therapy program, kayak companies can offer more than a relaxing day on the water.  They can provide a controlled situation where couples practice their communication skills and receive immediate evidence of success of their collaboration.  After a couple realizes that they can work together on the water, the communication skills shared confidence can be applied on land.  The couple will also have an activity they can do together for a long time which is one of the reasons people get married in the first place.

Special thanks to Chris Young and Gloria Cotton of San Francisco Kayak & Adventures for the inspiration for this post.

This couple probably attended a marriage kayak therapy program.

How hospitals can help patients get to appointments on time.

Getting around a hospital can be very difficult. There are many signs that try to be helpful by showing strange names like Endocrinology (Hormones) and Otorhinolaryngology (Ear, Nose, Throat).  When you ask for directions, people often say things like “go the West side of the building”.  Without a compass, this kind of information is as helpful as directions in Venice that tell you to walk straight.

While doctors and nurses who work in the hospital may know their way around, it is very difficult for everyone else.  Most visitors to a hospital are there for the first time and a usually under a heightened state of stress and or pain.  Additionally after people are admitted to a bed, they have to give directions to friends and family to come visit.  This creates a blind leading the blind situation.

To solve this problem, most hospitals post maps around the building like this excerpt from the Stanford Hospital.

Map shows Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

To get someplace, you look at the map, find the, “You are here sticker”, find where you are going from the list of strange sounding names and then figure out which way to walk.  After walking for a while you may recheck the map to make sure you are still headed in the right direction.  This whole process can take 10 minutes which is time you do not have when you are late for an appointment.  In communication theory, the process of reading a map is called decoding.  Most people do not encode maps quickly under stress.

Instead, hospitals should take advantage of people’s natural ability to follow a linear path and paint lines on the floor.  Instead of saying, “Go past Radiology, right at Endocrinology and left at Obstetrics” people would give directions by saying, “Blue Line 45”.

Here is how it would work.  A hospital like Stanford should paint lines on the floor similar to a subway.  The green line would lead to Cardiology while the yellow line would go to Labor and Delivery.  Colors that are difficult for people who are colorblind should be avoided.  In addition to the painted lines, a numbering system should be used similar to house addresses or freeway exits.  Zero should start at one end and then numbers for each yard should be used.  If one office is at zero, then the next office 21 feet away would be at 7.

Colored lines help you get around the hospital quickly.

When giving directions to someone, all you have to say is Green Line 79 and people would instantly be able to find the location.  The numbers will tell you if you have to go up or down the line and maps would show you where to transfer.  Each major entrance to the hospital would have a sign that shows you the shortest path to each of the lines from that entrance.

By adopting this numbered subway system, hospitals can make it easier for first time visitors to get around especially during a time of personal stress.  Not only would this make life easier for patients, but it would also cut down on unproductive time caused by late appointments.  This would also be helpful to suppliers, contractors and new interns would be able to reach their destination quicker.  Additionally, hospital staff would spend less time giving directions and could spend more time providing patient care.

How to keep your closet clean

Look in your closet.  Is it easy to find clothes on your hanger or do you have to push clothes aside in order to find what you are looking for?  If you have trouble finding what you want then your closet rod may be to blame.

Systems like factories or airports work more efficiently when they operate at a level below their maximum capacity to allow for minor disruptions.  A good example is major freeways.  Most freeways always have a spare lane on the right hand side.  If there is an accident during rush hour, the emergency crews can usually move the accident over into the spare lane on the side of the road and sort out the mess while traffic continues to flow.  This does not happen when there is no spare lane like in a bridge or tunnel.  If an accident occurs in one of these locations, traffic comes to a stand still until the accident is completely cleared.

Your closet is the same way.  When your entire closet rod is full of clothes, you can not push clothes aside to find what you are looking for.  You must judge a shirt or dress by the half-inch of cloth that is sandwiched between all the other items of clothing.  To pull a piece out, you must force open some space to get the item of clothing and as soon as you let go, the space is instantly filled.  You then have to fight to put the item back if you don’t want it.

This closet is at maximum capacity

In essence, your closet is operating at 110% efficiency.  There is no room for error and every time you want to see an item you must force open space. 

To solve this problem, closet rod manufacturers should give feedback about the capacity of your closet.  The can do this by adding a Red Zone to one end of the closet rod that covers 15% of the closet rod and the other 85% of the rod should be normal.  When you push all your clothes to one side of the closet rod, no clothes should be in the Red Zone.  If you do have clothes in the Red Zone, you need to clean out your closet. 

When your clothes enter the Red Zone, it is time to clean.

This way, when you are looking for an item of clothing there is more free space in your closet to move your clothes around and you will be able to quickly see the front of your clothes.  Additionally, you can quickly remove an item as well as put it back without fighting the other clothes.  The clothes that you enjoy wearing will be easy to get to and the clothes that take up space will be removed.

By adding a Red Zone to closet rods, manufactures can help your closet operate at an ideal 85% efficiency.  Not only will it be easier to take clothes out and put them back, but it will help you find your favorite clothes which is the whole purpose of a closet.

Special thanks to Jon Glommen for initiating this conversation.

How to design a car to make it look cleaner.

Have you ever pulled up behind a car and noticed dirty finger prints on the trunk of the car?  Most cars with lighter paint can accumulate a small amount of dirt without looking dirty.  It is only when some of that dirt is wiped off that you start to see how dirty the car actually is.

Without the fingerprints, this car would look clean.

The reason for this is that the human eye can detect contrast much better then it can detect absolute color shades.  Look at the image below.  If you cover the background with two pieces of paper, you will see that the middle bar is the same color from left to right.  The human eye perceives a change only in reference to other colors.

The eye can recognize contrast better than absolute colors.

When people touch a slightly dirty car, they scrape off some off the dust and create a contrast.  This happens to most cars where the back door lifts up.  Most people grab the bottom edge of the door when it is above their head leaving fingerprints.  To minimize the impact of this problem, car manufactures should add a design element like raised trim in a darker color to the bottom edge of the door.  When you reach up to close the door, you would only touch the trim piece instead of the solid color door.  This would prevent fingerprints wiping away some of the dirt and showing that the car is dirty.  Of course, the trim piece would be designed to match the overall style.

A black trim piece that people would touch when they close the door.

By adding this simple design element, a light color car will not have fingerprints on the back door when the car is dirty.  This will make the car look cleaner even when there is a slight layer of dust.  A clean looking car does not have to be washed as often thus saving people time.  Therefore, a small change to the design of the car will prevent busy people from having to spend their Saturdays waiting in line at the car wash.

Do you have any overdue library books?

The library is a great place to get access to books that you will read for a short time and do not want to buy.  This goes for both adults and children.  However, once you bring the library books home they have a tendency to get mixed in with your other books.  Many people spend more time looking for overdue library books then they spend actually reading the books.  Additionally, the late fees may be more then the book may have cost used on Amazon.

Can you find the library book?

The reason that it is hard to find a library book in your house is because it is difficult to tell the difference between a library books and your own books.  This is especially true when you are cleaning up after children.  Most library books have a small white sticker on the spine with the call numbers.  Hardly something that jumps out.  When you are looking for a particular overdue book, you do not want to look for a small white sticker just to find the missing book.

Instead, libraries should use a better visual system to identify their books.  One method would be transparent neon tape that is applied to the plastic cover that most library books have.  Another solution would be to paint the fore-edge (that is the edge of the pages opposite the spine, I had to look it up) a bright color.

The bright orange tape makes the library book stand out.

This way, instead of having to actively look for a missing library book, the book itself would stand out.  Whenever you see a pile of books your eye, would automatically see the library books and you would place these books in a special place.  Then you could always find the books when you are ready to read them or return them.

By increasing the visibility of library books, libraries would make it easier for people to find books at home reducing the number of late returns and reducing fines that people have to pay.  Then again, maybe libraries don’t mind if you return books late.

How heater manufacturers can improve the effectiveness of heaters.

Ever notice how your electricity bill tends to increase during the winter?  One of the major uses of electricity in the winter is for portable electric heaters.  In a typical situation, people will place the heater in a cold room that usually has a window and turn the heater on.  If the room is still cold, they will turn the heater higher.  What most people do not know is that if the heater is far away from the window, much of the heat from the heater can end up at the ceiling while the floor remains cold.  The reasons for this, is that cold air from the window falls while hot air from the heater rises creating a circulation pattern.  See the picture below:

As you can see, when the heater is placed away from the window, the ceiling is hot while the floor is cold.  To solve this problem, the heater should be place near the window.  The warm air from the heater will rise, be slightly cooled by the window, move across the ceiling and then fall down the opposite wall and heat the floor.  This sets up a natural circulation that evenly heats the room.  Architects know this and if you look at the placement of floor vents in a house or a hotel room you will notice that the heater is always placed below the window.  See picture below:

As the picture shows, the cold air near the window is heated before it enters the room and the air on the floor comes from the ceiling  rather than from the window.  Heater manufactures should use the Behavioral Science concept of Anchoring to recommend to customers where to place the heater for maximum comfort.  When people place a heater in the room, their first choice will be near the window based because of the labeling on the heater.  Today people are given no recommendations and the probability that the heater will end up near the window is low.

By anchoring people to the concept of placing heaters near windows, heater manufacturers can help customers heat a room evenly and reduce electricity use. This will ultimately reduce the overall cost of ownership of the heater as well as increase the perception of effectiveness of the heater.

Warning:  There should always be adequate space between a heater and any loose cloth like drapes.  Also not that this concept is not as applicable to heaters with fans.

Special thanks to Leura Greunke for the trigger for this concept.

How restaurants can increase the value of the food served.

Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after eating a great meal feeling physically tired and mentally slow?  The food may taste great but the large portions take a long time to digest.  On the other extreme is the diet menu.  Restaurants may display the low number of calories of an item but the selection may be lacking in taste.

How would you feel after eating this?

Customers must choose between meals that taste great but have consequences after the meal and items that are low in calories but may not taste as good.  If people do choose the healthier choices on the menu and lose weight, Self Attribution Bias from Behavioral Science tells us that people will never give the restaurant credit for the weight loss.

I propose that there is another option.  People are more likely to mentally enjoy a meal if there is a reward that is delivered in the short term.  In this case, restaurants could use the Behavioral Science concept of Framing and tell people how the food will make the patron feel a couple of hours after eating the meal.  While some foods make you fell tired and slow, other foods can make you mentally awake and energized.  To increase value to customers, some restaurants should focus on how you feel after a meal and then advertise those effects on the menu.  Instead of focusing on what the food does not have like calories, or cholesterol, the restaurant should focus on the short-term benefits the food provides.

Here is how it would work.  Imagine you are working in a law firm and you need to prepare for big court case the next day.  The menu would list several dishes that support brain function.  The meal could start with a walnut spinach salad, the main course would be salmon and desert could consist of blueberries.  Of course a couple on a date might opt for the aphrodisiac menu that includes oysters, shark fin soup and chocolate.  Mararthon runners would be offered a meal high in carbohydrates that would increase the storage of glycogen (or energy) in their muscles.  

Your mind would be sharp after this meal.

In summary, restaurants should design a menu that provides known benefits in the hours after consuming the meal and then advertise those benefits.  This will bridge the gap between food that tastes great but makes you feel terrible afterwards and food that is less appetizing but may provide benefits 20 years latter.  This will make people enjoy meals that may not have as much taste but have short-term health benefits.  It will also increase the value that restaurants offer to patrons by highlighting the food body relationship.