In this blog, I have previously mentioned how aesthetics in design improve the appeal of the product. To summarize, some of the virtues that enhance aesthetics include the following:

1) mastery of complex systems and self-assembly 

2) passion for versatility 

3) redesign in a positive and constructive way 

4) knack for making information clear and engaging 

5) metaphysical appreciation of bodily functions 

6) infusing objects with elegance and intelligence

In addition, today I cite articles which emphasize that customer experience is also governed by psychological factors. Given an uncertain unprecedented tool, an audience may abandon careful analysis and instead resort to mental shortcuts – that almost always lead to the wrong answer. It turns out that the smarter we are the more likely we are to make such mistakes. This is the claim made by Cognitive sophistication which does not attenuate the bias blind spot paper by West RF. 

The researchers treat these observances as “cognitive bias” and “anchoring bias” both of which play very much into product design and marketing. 

Cognitive bias is when we make interpretations from surface facts. For example, if a pencil and eraser cost a dollar and ten cents and the pencil is a dollar more than the eraser, how much is the eraser? The answer is five cents not the ten cents if we did not rush to the answer 

Anchoring bias is when we make interpretations from the first observation and use it thereafter for subsequent deductions. If we are wrong from the start, everything else follows accordingly. 

The paper cited above goes into length explaining how bias forms. When we take the bias away from the social domain, it is easier to observe that it is all the more difficult to detect in one's own judgement. Furthermore, according to them, people who are aware of their own biases are not able to overcome them.  The more intelligent we are the worse it gets. There is therefore a universal appeal in something that is simpler. 

This is where minimalistic design helps. Meerkat, Teleparty and Snapchat are among the companies that are known for the "dumb" simplicity of their apps which contributed to their success. There is a 80/20 rule to such designs. "Keep the features that 80% of the users will use. Kill the ones that only 20% will use."

#codingexercise

Find sum of subsequences of a given sequence of positive integers that are divisible by m

We could translate this problem as find if there is any subset in the sequence that has sum 1x m, 2 x m, 3 x m, ... n x m where n x m <= sequence.sum()

void PrintSubsequenceSumDivisibleBy(List<int>seq, int m)

{

   for (int sum = m; sum <= seq.sum(); sum=sum+m)

         if (IsSubSeqSum(seq, seq.Count, sum))

             Console.WriteLine(sum);

}

bool IsSubSeqSum(List<int> seq, int n, int sum)

{

if (sum == 0) return true;

if (sum < 0) return false;

if (n == 0 && sum != 0) return false;

if (seq[n-1] > sum)

     return IsSubSeqSum(seq, n-1, sum);

return IsSubSeqSum(seq, n-1, sum) || IsSubSeqSum(seq, n-1, sum-seq[n-1]);

}