2. My first public presentation for the Magento Community

How cognitive bias can influence our online buying decisions

I am passionate about the web industry and I am proud to work in it, but I never felt the need to speak out publicly, until now. It’s not that I think I can do a better job than other presenters, or that I have some unique view point that no one else will ever have.

It’s that I realised I’ve worked on some incredible projects with amazing people, I’ve done a lot of research & thinking and I’d like to share some of my experience. I suppose I’ve learnt a lot from public articles, speakers and thought leaders in the past and I’d like to give something back as well.

This first ever public presentation is on something that I feel quite passionately about. Understanding our users from more than just a statistical point of view. Looking at how our underlying brain mechanisms (cognative biases) can push us towards decisions we never believed we could make. In researching tricks that our brains play on us I started to understand that the web industry has a duty of care to its customers. One that is often overlooked.

At the end of the presentation I tried to touch upon the ethics of exploiting users and consumers. It is a difficult subject and I don’t feel I engaged the audience well enough to get my point across. I will be working on that side of things over the coming months with a couple of articles dedicated to Ethics in IT. Saying that, for my first public presentation I think I got 70% of my meaning across despite the awkwardness of watching myself present for the first time.

I certainly have plenty of ideas on how I can engage a bit better next time.

Let me know if you liked the presentation and if you have any counter-viewpoints or something to add to the conversation below.

Originally published at ofkris.com.