The psychology behind this day
The Conversion Sequence (Making Websites Win, Ch. 2–4): Blanks and Jesson's core methodology is that every website visitor passes through a sequence: they arrive, they evaluate, they understand (or don't), and they act (or leave). Conversion failure is almost always a failure at one specific step — not a general "the website doesn't work." The diagnostic power comes from identifying which step is broken, because each step has a different fix.
Maslow's Hierarchy applied to buying (Cashvertising, Ch. 1 — the Life-Force 8): Whitman identifies eight fundamental human desires that drive all buying behaviour — survival, enjoyment of food and drink, freedom from fear and danger, sexual companionship, comfortable living conditions, being superior, care and protection of loved ones, and social approval. Your four-step framework maps to these: Step 1 (Find You) is about reaching people with active desires. Step 2 (Trust You) is about removing fear and danger. Step 3 (Understand You) is about clarity on how the desire gets fulfilled. Step 4 (Buy) is about making the path to fulfilment feel safe.
Cognitive Load Theory (Don't Make Me Think, Ch. 1; Laws of UX — Miller's Law): Miller's Law states that the average person can hold only 7 (±2) items in working memory. When your customer encounters your business and has to process too much at once — unclear messaging, too many options, confusing navigation — their working memory overloads and they default to the easiest action: leaving.
Optional — go deeper (videos)
The Lesson
Find You
Right customers in the right places. No signage? No Google presence? Wrong audience? Nothing else matters.
Trust You
Within seconds. Design, language, proof — everything either builds trust or erodes it.
Understand You
Clarity on what you do and why it matters to them. Not a design problem — a thinking problem.
Buy From You
Easy, low-risk path. No unclear CTAs, no unnecessary steps, no moments of doubt.
Most businesses get one of these right and wonder why nothing converts.
Today's Exercise
Map your own business against the four steps. For each step, answer:
- What are you currently doing for this step?
- What's working?
- What's broken or missing?
- Rate yourself honestly: 1 (completely failing) to 5 (nailing it).
AI-Assisted (Strategy folder)
Open your Strategy folder from Day 2 and use this prompt:
"I run a [type of business] in [location]. My customers are [description]. Using the frameworks in this project — particularly the persuasion and decision-making research — analyse my business against these four steps: (1) Can the right customers find me? (2) Do they trust me within seconds? (3) Can they tell what I do and why it matters? (4) Is the buying path easy and safe? For each step, rate me 1–5 and tell me specifically what's broken and one thing I can fix this week."
Notice the difference: because your Strategy folder contains Kahneman, Cialdini, Ariely, and the others, the analysis will be grounded in psychological principles — not generic marketing advice.
Output: A completed four-step diagnosis of your business with a 1–5 rating for each step and specific gaps identified.