The finer aspects of psychology in UX Design

As I write this article sitting in a Vietnamese cafe in downtown Seoul, I can't help but think about how different cultures evolved over time and spread across the world, creating their own little world abroad. However, there is something which binds every culture together irrespective of what language they speak - it is the language of how we think and behave - a universal truth (or ?? (jingli) in Korean, meaning 'the aboslute truth', thanks ??? for teaching me this!). As behaviourism is deeply rooted into the human psyche, it plays a very important role in our every day interaction with fellow humans, pets, or even devices. In this article, I would like to talk about how behaviourism is important when it comes to UX Deisgn and what are some of the psychological tricks that you can keep in mind while designing an application.

The Chameleon Effect

The memory of the worldwide lockdown is still fresh in my mind, when we all had to switch to working virtually, with perpetual zoom meetings at odd hours. I remember feeling the urge to yawn at the sight of my yawning colleagues. Sounds familiar, right? This is what we call the Chameleon effect. In 1999, Charles and Bargh [1] carried out experiments where they concluded that people like to mimic each other subconsciously, and that results in creating more amicable feelings toward you. Many UX designers copy this trait to impact the feeling of the user and guilt trip them - for example, the famous Duolingo mascot often cries and sobs when the user has not completed the streak, or food delivery applications send puppy eye notifications to make you donate towards CSR or send a tip to the delivery agent. Whether it is moral or immoral is a different debate, but this is one of the most common psychological hacks used in the UX world.

Zeigarnik Effect

Soviet psychologist Bulma Zeigarnik discovered what is now known as the Zeigarnik Effect [2], which states that humans are better at remembering incomplete tasks as compared to completed tasks. This hypothesis closely matches the Goal Gradient Effect [3] which states that the tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. It is for this reason, why most websites that require us to finish a number of steps either during a sign-up or filling a form often display a progress bar to make sure the users know how much of the task they have completed and how much is remaining.

Mere-Exposure Effect

The mere-exposure effect [4] explains why people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. When it comes to decision-making, especially when buying a product, people tend to lean towards the products or experiences they are already familiar with. The most classic example of this are phone users. People familiar with Apple's user interface rarely switch to Android. How does this apply to UX Design? Websites tend to place most commonly interacted items such as CTAs, or notifications at places that are already familiar with the user. This would make the user feel accustomed from the very beginning without feeling lost in the application.

The Illusion of Control

Ellen Langer, a psychologist at Harvard University hypothesised the Illusion of Control [5]. She theorised that humans have the tendency to overestimate their ability to control events, and feel a false sense of security when they have the illusion of control. This psychological trait is quite commonly exploited by politicians, giving an illusion of choice when it comes to voting too. In UX design however, it is less malicious - designers often place multiple buttons for the same task to provide a sense of security to the user. Especially seen in Windows operating system where users have the option of X (Close) and Esc (Escape) to cancel any event. It is for the same reason why some websites like that of your favourite email provider display a 'Refreshing' animation even though the emails arrive instantly. It doesn't make it any faster if we refresh, but it gives us the illusion of control that the results are the outcome of our actions. If you are reading it from the United States, next time you enter an elevator, remember that the door close button does not actually work :) [6] Remember, the feeling of control is more important than having control.

Cocktail Party Effect

Next time you're writing a copy for an emailer or push notifications, try to create a code that automatically adds the user's name to the subject line. People will be quicker to notice it. This is the Coktail Party Effect at play [7]. There are various other psychological cues that explain the cocktail party effect, for example, when you often have the misconception that someone is calling your name, or if you purchased a car and then you tend to see it everywhere on the street. In fact, it is closely related to one of the dialogues that I heard in the Taiwanese horror movie Incantation [8] which I highly recommend by the way. The main character Li Ruonan says that it doesn't matter what name you have because people only call it when it is something important, or urgent. Of course, it is not true with every aspect of our life, but interesting nonetheless.

Aesthetic Usability Effect

Humans are wired to love and admire beauty. As unfair as it might be, it is true - which is one reason why society tends to be more favourable towards good looking people. When translated to user experience design, this phenomenon is called the Aesthetic Usability Effect. People tend to believe that things that look better will work better, even if that is not the case. There's often a debate among design teams regarding beauty vs function. Designers need to find the perfect balance, ensuring that the user experience is delightful and beautiful at the same time. Agoda is my preferred website for travel planning, and their UI and UX are quite amazing, especially if you compare it with the designs of websites such as Trip and MakeMyTrip.

Serial Position Effect

I remember often joking in school about some students writing long answers with a perfect beginning and ending, while putting song lyrics in the middle. Now that I think of it, it is closely related to the Serial-position effect [9]. Coined by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in the 1800s, the Serial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, leaving out the middle items. Companies tend to use this principle by keeping the most important item at the beginning or end of a list while the less important part in the middle, so that users don't have to navigate through multiple options to figure out what they want. It is one simple way to improve your UX.

Hick's Law

Developed by Ray Hyman and Edmund Hick, Hick's Law [10] states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. That is why websites such as Amazon and Netflix are making their categories shorter to ensure that users are not bombarded with multiple choices. However, websites such as Shopee and AliExpress have a different strategy altogether, for different reasons of course, which I would touch upon in another article.

Wrapping it up

Next time when you're about to start a new project, ask yourself - "As a user how would I use it on a daily basis?" "What are some of the basic human traits that we unconsciously follow?". Little things such as these can hugely impact the stickiness of a user on your app, and this paired with the science of colours (which I will talk about in my next post) would make for a delightful user experience. Be sure to check out all the references and the movie!

#uxdesign #psychology #humandesign