Wish more places invested in design. I had to help my dad with Massachusetts new design for their tax homepage. Just awful. You go there to pay taxes monthly, to come close to accessing that page is 3-4 buttons deep.
I recently discovered I could increase my real sales conversion rate by about 30%(!) by switching from a multiple page checkout process to a single-page one. About all I could figure was that each additional "action" in terms of page changing gave the user more time to have doubt about making the purchase. Edit: just it case it wasn't clear, I actually got the increase, it wasn't just a hypothetical possibility.
For some businesses it works because they offer enough to overcome the inconvenience while others do it out of incompetence or simply cargo cult.
Most customers come to Ikea with family or spouse. The store's design provides a space of reflection on the state of their own home against an unfolding sequence of idealized Scandinavian nuclear families. At the end of the pilgrimage, ample opportunity is provided to make amends with cheap impulse purchases.
But it seems to work for most of their shoppers due to a combination of price and utility.
closing a tab of a website or closing an app is easy. mild frustrations equal lost business on the internet.
that's why sleazy salesmen work in stores.
if you want to learn more about this, look up 'captive market'
I watched Objectified, design movie. It was okay, but didn't give me much more than Don't Make Me Think. It probably would have made more of an impact if I watched it before reading the book. What these books/movies do is change your perception of the world. Once that's done and you see something similar you'd be like "of course" instead of "I never thought of it that way".