Quoting from the article: An experiment conducted by Kevin Larson and Rosalind Picard looked at how typography affects mood and performance of the readers. It happened across two studies, where they took three kind of measurements: Relative Subject Duration (RSD), Likert Scale and through a cognitive task which was different for both studies.
There were twenty participants, half of them got the text with poor typography and half got good typography.
In the first study, the participants were given twenty minutes to read the passage, amid which (after 15 minutes) they were interrupted and asked to estimate how long they had been reading for. After the RSD data was recorded, they were asked to fill out the Likert preference questionnaire with 6 statements, where one of the statements was whether they found the text easy to read.
Next, they were given a cognitive task, which for the first study was a Candle problem.
The second study was very similar to the first one, except for the RSD data, they were interrupted 17 minutes into reading, and the cognitive performance task was changed to remote associates test.
Results
- Participants with good typography underestimated their time by 3 minutes 18 seconds in the first study and by 5 minutes and 21 seconds in the second study. This shows that when a passage is well structured, the readers are more engrossed in the text.
- With the Likert scale questionnaire in the first study, the results were not reliable. But in the second study, some scores were in favor of good typography.
- For the Candle problem, out of the 10 participants who were shown good typography, 4 successfully completed the task, while 0 participants completed the task in the other group.
- In the Remote associates task, the results were not statistically significant or reliable with the good typography group succeeding on 52% of the task at an average speed of 6395ms, and the poor typography group succeeding at 48% of the task at an average speed of 6715ms.
Even though the result was not reliable enough in the second study, the good typography group did perform better. This can be attributed to the fact that they were in a better mood before starting the task. Hence, they were better at problem solving.
> There have been a few times I've seen an ad on a website that looked like it was for something I wanted, and wanted to click it.
Absolutely. IMO, Banner Blindness alone is the biggest reason why web publishers are facing difficulty in monetising web inventory.
Many a times, people don't notice ads even if they were relevant to them, just because of banner blindness. In fact, 3 out of 10 display ads are never seen [1]
Thanks! From what we've been told, 50 is somewhat large - I personally don't know of any other startup which has done that, in an angel round.
We'll have a dashboard for each investor and if something requires investor approval - it comes from a select few, who have the Power of Attorney from the rest of the group.
I liked your insight about the persuit of happiness. Did you know there are ads designed specifically to help people feel less guilty after thy made an expensive purchase? (Merdedes does this).
I seem to remember Cialdini's "Influence" touches on this (it's a great read about persuasion and influence in any case)
Basically we have a strong need and desire to be self-consistent, and so we seek reasons to rationalise our decisions and they don't need to be all that logical as we try really hard to fill in the gaps. Just present a somewhat plausible story, and you can make people substantially happier about their purchase.
A lot of aspirational brand advertising serves to make you willing to spend money on an expensive product, but also to help you justify the purchase to yourself afterwards by continuing to give you reasons why you made the right choice, so that you go tell your friends about your awesome expensive new Mercedes rather than go around telling them the car salesman tricked you into buying a car you can't really afford once you've had a chance to think things through.
On the lower end, those "write 200 words about how much you love X for a chance to win" competitions are based on a similar principle: They don't care one iota what you write; but apart from getting your address for marketing purposes, they also want people to think about positive things to associate their product with, and commit to them in writing - our need to be self-consistent makes us feel better about the product as a result and we become more likely to advocate the brand and be a loyal customer.
I'm based out of India and hate the Taxation system here (it's worse than what you read for the US) - software attracts Service Tax and VAT (Sales Tax) both - you pay reverse service tax for services you take from abroad and you even pay TDS (Withholding Tax) from your pocket for entities not incorporated in India. I could just go on and go on here.... it's just stupid.
I'm planning to incorporate my startup soon and want to do it in a country where I can:
1) Use a PG like Stripe.
2) No Service/Sales Tax just flat out corporate tax on profits.
3) Easy, Simple and Affordable Registration and maintenance process.
> You pay reverse service tax for services you take from abroad and you even pay TDS (Withholding Tax) from your pocket for entities not incorporated in India
This is the most bizzare tax compliance issue I faced in India.
If you incorporate in US, you still have to pay taxes in India. This can make things easier in India, but it can create additional compliance and tax burden in US.
If you are looking forward to raise Venture Capital, then Delaware C-Corp is the preferred route. If you want to remain a self-funded company, then LLC can be a better option.
If you want to carry forward your revenue in India, then you can contract your Indian entity and transfer funds for services. Any funds you transfer to Indian company will be subject to Services tax or VAT and Income tax.
You can use services like LegalZoom to incorporate in US online.
Delaware corporations are not required for venture financing, as more than a few major venture people have said publically and on their blogs.
Just use your own state's corporation laws (if you're in the U.S.), until you're a many-multi-million dollar size entity, and avoid the headaches of being a foreign corporation within your own state (meaning out-of-state, but within the U.S.). You've got bigger fish to fry, if you're starting out.
Yes, being able to use Stripe would be a great advantage.
There are a number of online services offering mostly a hassle free incorporation process, but none explains (or compares) the entrepreneur's side of the experience for an online business.
Quoting from the article: An experiment conducted by Kevin Larson and Rosalind Picard looked at how typography affects mood and performance of the readers. It happened across two studies, where they took three kind of measurements: Relative Subject Duration (RSD), Likert Scale and through a cognitive task which was different for both studies.
There were twenty participants, half of them got the text with poor typography and half got good typography.
In the first study, the participants were given twenty minutes to read the passage, amid which (after 15 minutes) they were interrupted and asked to estimate how long they had been reading for. After the RSD data was recorded, they were asked to fill out the Likert preference questionnaire with 6 statements, where one of the statements was whether they found the text easy to read.
Next, they were given a cognitive task, which for the first study was a Candle problem.
The second study was very similar to the first one, except for the RSD data, they were interrupted 17 minutes into reading, and the cognitive performance task was changed to remote associates test.
Results - Participants with good typography underestimated their time by 3 minutes 18 seconds in the first study and by 5 minutes and 21 seconds in the second study. This shows that when a passage is well structured, the readers are more engrossed in the text. - With the Likert scale questionnaire in the first study, the results were not reliable. But in the second study, some scores were in favor of good typography. - For the Candle problem, out of the 10 participants who were shown good typography, 4 successfully completed the task, while 0 participants completed the task in the other group. - In the Remote associates task, the results were not statistically significant or reliable with the good typography group succeeding on 52% of the task at an average speed of 6395ms, and the poor typography group succeeding at 48% of the task at an average speed of 6715ms.
Even though the result was not reliable enough in the second study, the good typography group did perform better. This can be attributed to the fact that they were in a better mood before starting the task. Hence, they were better at problem solving.