How to shop the internet like a grocery store | Bridget Stuger | TEDxBU

Key Concepts

• Systems Designed Against Users: The core argument that many systems, like the internet and grocery stores, are intentionally designed to confuse or annoy users to benefit businesses by increasing spending of time, money, and attention.
• Grocery Store Analogy: A framework used to understand and reclaim the internet by comparing user experiences in both environments.
• Boundary Setting: A strategy for reclaiming the internet by defining specific tasks or goals, similar to making a grocery list.
• Exploration: A strategy for reclaiming the internet by actively seeking out new content and experiences, akin to discovering new items in a grocery store.
• User Experience (UX) Design: The field concerned with creating products and services that are easy to use and enjoyable for the user, often in conflict with business objectives focused on profit.

The Internet and Grocery Stores: A Shared Design Philosophy

The speaker begins by drawing a parallel between the frustrating experience of a grocery store employee being unable to locate an item and the feeling of being lost on the internet. This initial observation leads to the central thesis: many systems we rely on are designed against us, aiming to make us spend more of our time, money, and attention.

The Grocery Store Experience as a Framework

The video uses the grocery store as a relatable analogy to understand the internet. The speaker describes a typical grocery shopping trip:

• Navigating to Essentials: Items like eggs and milk, which are basic necessities, are often placed at the back of the store.
• Distractions and Overwhelm: To reach these essentials, shoppers must pass eye-catching displays and aisles with numerous variations of the same product (e.g., 20 versions of something).
• Strategic Placement: Reasonably priced options are often on lower shelves, requiring bending down, while items with shorter shelf lives are placed at the front, pushing older stock to the back.
• Overall Frustration: This design leads to a confusing and frustrating experience.

The Internet Experience Mirroring the Grocery Store

This grocery store experience is then directly compared to navigating the internet:

• Sponsored Results: Google searches begin with sponsored results, similar to the initial displays in a grocery store.
• Intrusive Pop-ups: Upon landing on a website, users are immediately met with pop-ups (e.g., subscription requests, cookie consent) before they can even orient themselves.
• Hidden Essentials: Similar to the back of the store, what the user is truly looking for is often buried, while attention-grabbing elements are placed prominently.
• Cookie Management: The "Accept or manage" cookie prompt, with no easy "close" option, is highlighted as another point of frustration and confusion.

The core similarity identified is that both systems place what you're really looking for in the back, while pumping the front with items designed to grab your attention.

The Conflict Between User Experience and Business Profits

The speaker, a user experience (UX) designer, shares personal experience highlighting the tension between designing for the user and fulfilling business demands.

• User-First vs. Profit-Driven: The title "user experience designer" emphasizes the user, yet professional work often involved making desired items harder to find and prioritizing business profits through annoying or attention-grabbing elements.
• Ethical Considerations: The speaker notes that an overemphasis on profits without ethical considerations can lead to a web that reduces meaningful interactions (friendships to likes, interests to subscriptions, searches to purchases).
• A Better Internet: Despite these challenges, the speaker expresses a belief in a better internet and gratitude for a job that allows for ethical considerations in design.

Reclaiming the Internet: Boundary Setting and Exploration

The video proposes two key strategies, inspired by grocery shopping habits, to reclaim a more enjoyable and intentional internet experience: boundary setting and exploration.

Boundary Setting: The Power of a List

Boundary setting is presented as a natural human behavior that can be applied to the web.

• Grocery List Analogy: Making a grocery list helps shoppers stay focused on essential items and resist impulse purchases.
• Applying to the Web: Instead of physical items, users can create mental "lists" of tasks they want to accomplish online (e.g., "buy a new tablecloth," "look at memes").
• Resisting Distractions: Having a clear task in mind makes it easier to say "no" to pop-ups and irrelevant recommendations.
• Self-Reflection: Naming online activities (e.g., "doom scrolling") can lead to self-reflection and conscious choices about how time is spent.
• Transforming Habits: By setting boundaries, screen time can shift from an autopilot activity to a more intentional and fulfilling experience, leading to better sleep and a stronger start to the day.
• Reclaiming Time, Not Reducing Usage: The goal is not necessarily to use the internet less, but to use it more intentionally and with greater satisfaction.

Exploration: Discovering New Online Spaces

Exploration is presented as a way to actively curate a desired web experience.

• Grocery Store Exploration: In grocery stores, exploration can involve trying new snacks, visiting specialty stores or farmers' markets, or reading newsletters.
• Applying to the Web:
  • Active Searching: Instead of passively scrolling through recommendations, actively search for desired videos.
  • Nostalgic Exploration: Revisit old favorite online spaces (e.g., Pop Tropica, Webkinz) and discover adult versions.
  • Deeper Search: Go beyond the first page of search results to find smaller, more local websites.
  • Trial and Error: Finding enjoyable online experiences is a process of trial and error, similar to discovering a new favorite snack.
• Email Newsletters: Curated email newsletters are highlighted as a valuable tool for exploration, offering vetted links to new content aligned with interests, encouraging discovery without overwhelming commitment.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

The video concludes by reiterating the core message: while the internet has evolved in ways that prioritize profit over people, it can still be a space for enjoyment and accomplishment.

• Applying Familiar Habits: The key to reclaiming the internet lies in applying habits already possessed from familiar systems like grocery shopping.
• Intentional Choices: Users are encouraged to ask themselves: "Will you explore or will you make a list?"
• Creative and Simple Approach: The speaker urges creativity and simplicity in adopting these new habits, ending with the memorable reminder: "don't forget the eggs."