Emetrics 2007: San Francisco

Jim Sterne and Matt Finley did it again.  The Palace hotel in San Francisco was the site of the West Coast US Emetrics event.  Over 500 people were in attendance, including practitioners, vendors, consultants and even a cultural anthropologist named Joseph Carrabis.

Joseph is Jim Sterne’s web analyst.  He took a look at Jim’s site, made changes to it and came prepared to talk about the results.

Joseph’s presentation was one of the most interesting.  In other presentations, I look for the one thing that I can take back and apply right away.  Joseph shared insights about how people’s brains are wired – nothing about web analytics just optimization for brains.  His main point was that 85% of communication is non-verbal and we perceive things subconsciously that affect our consciousness.

Two of my favorite points:

1. Left Face Front – You are more likely to like/trust someone when they present the left side of their face.  This works both in-person and in a picture on a website.

2. Left vs. Right Navigation – Navigation on the left hand side forces the visitor to pick the least painful path.  Navigation on the right hand side enables the visitor to pick the most enjoyable path.  (If you test this, please comment on your results.)

Joseph ran out of time around slide 10. When he asked the audience what he should focus on, everyone yelled that we wanted it all….go over the time and continue.  Joseph went an additional 30 Minutes over for an enjoyable hour and a half. 

I felt like I had just seen Bryan Eisenberg for the very first time. 

Everyone had similar reactions about the content.  It was mind opening, new to me, crazy in a good way, and well received. If you get a chance to see Joseph speak, head for the room and pick a seat up front. 

He also has another (#23) book coming out that looks interesting – Reading Virtual Minds.  There are excerpts available here.