Behavioral Responsiveness in web development
Channel: J and Beyond e.V.
Date: 2015-05-31

by Ronni K. Gothard Christiansen

In today’s world responsive platform independent web solutions are a norm.

We expect our experience to be responsive to the setting in which we utilize content from the internet. We expect it to be platform independent. We expect it to be accommodating itself to us, and to our needs.

We see it every day when we browse the web from our tablets, smartphones, desktops, smart TVs etc., it is all showing the content of most of the sites we use in an optimal fashion.

But there is one big flaw in the system.

The responsiveness is still only focused towards the device, which we use to browse the web and not on the person who’s actually browsing the web.

What we need is a way of thought that is based on sociological models of responsiveness in behavior. To do so a series of questions becomes highly relevant.

Why do people show a certain behavior?
Why do people show different behaviors?
Why do people change behavior?
Could there be any geographical differences in behavior?
Could there be any gender-based differences in behavior?
Are there any age-based differences in behavior?

The questions are many and, more than I have written, we do, in fact, have a lot of relevant knowledge, or even the answers.

We see the answers in the different marketing mechanisms employed to market, brand and sell products on a daily basis.

We see the answers in communication towards different age groups.

We see the answers in tax and fee systems that try to change people’s behavior.

We see the answers in the way most of the shops we visit are “designed” to get you past the product isles where you are most likely to do impulsive shopping.

Since we can see this and recognize the importance, meaning and effect does that also mean we understand behavior?