Baking the perfect recipe for Persuasive Design
The human mind is susceptible to persuasion. The process of influencing human behavior by coaxing and urging is an age-old business technique. It is a strategy to lure common people towards the products and services offered by the business people. With the present surge in consumerism, it has become all the more relevant to influence and thereby attract people’s minds so that they can be persuaded to become subscribers for the products/services on offer.
UX design is a unique field of the modern digital era. Through UX design, businesses can reach out to their core customer base without much trouble. Amid the present fierce competition among the business entities to grab a fair share of the market, the indispensability of customer persuasion has assumed greater significance. UX designers worldwide have resorted to using persuasive design as a potent tool to attract customers to use the product/services of the business provider for which they are working.
What is Persuasive Design?
UX designers discreetly highlight the characteristics of their products and services. It is an attempt to influence human behavior through subtle maneuvering of the psychological aspect of the user. Using the cognitive factor judiciously, UX designers tactfully display the characteristics of their products and services. Such a design practice of impressing upon the users’ minds with psychological inputs is what we refer to as Persuasive Design. This discipline is increasingly being used in e-commerce, healthcare sector, and in organizational management. The effective use of persuasive design can ensure long term engagement of the target customer with that of the product/service provider.
Role of Technology in Persuasive Design
Technology has always been the main force behind all the inventions in the history of mankind. The practice of persuasive design is also mostly derived from the boons of technology. The effective use of persuasive design is largely tech-driven. The use of media technology can significantly affect the pattern of human behavior. Television advertisements and the display of banners/posters/slides have a profound impact on the psychology of human beings. With the perpetual progression of technology, the medium of electronic communications has become interactive. As such, customers have the option to present their inputs, their precise requirements to their respective goods and service providers. Accordingly, such interactive nature of the medium of communication has the potential to address the users’ needs in the context of a specific situation. The advanced, sophisticated tools at the disposal of the UX designers make it possible to tailor the elements of user experience according to the specific needs of the users. Such sophisticated resources will enable the UX designers to introduce the necessary persuasive elements into the UX design.
The Three Essential Ingredients of Persuasive Design
The field of persuasive design is still evolving. The framework necessary to support the designers is developing at a rapid pace. B.J.Fogg, an eminent professor at Stanford University, introduced his Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) to highlight the three most prominent factors responsible for influencing the decisions of the customers. These three factors are motivation, ability, and triggers. UX designers have to understand the prominence of these three factors while optimizing their designs according to the specific demand of the users. They could achieve the desired outcomes by giving due care to address the demand of the above three factors while designing the user interface. The designers should be careful enough not to use any negative tactics like coercion and deception. Thus, the onus of retaining the trust and faith of the customers solely relies on the designers. The ability to win customers’ confidence and retain a long-term engagement with them is a major criterion for persuasive design practice. Designers should be wary of not infringing upon the trust of their customers and should refrain from violating their interest by not resorting to any negative tactics.
The Persuasion Funnel
The thought process of a customer in deciding his preference of purchase across different brands undergoes the following sequence of stages. The marketing and advertising personnel refer to it as AIDA — the acronym of Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Persuasive design is all about weaving elements of all these four sequential stages. Again, while discussing persuasive design, it is to be noted that users go through several stages between awareness and action. The design in question is supposed to guide the users through the following stages:
- Awareness
- Relevant
- Credible
- Usable
- Desirable
- Persuasive
- Action
Users contemplating an action, travel through your website to understand the facilities available. While navigating the user interface, they are very finicky about their experience and make momentous decisions about whether to proceed to the next step or to abandon their journey and go elsewhere. Persuasive design plays a vital role in such situations. The success of such a design depends on its ability to retain customers’ interest and confidence for a long time.
Final Thoughts
The intricacies of persuasive design are vast and cannot be discussed threadbare within the short confinement of this article. We have broadly elaborated upon the basics to have a ringside view of the same. We will be sharing more such in-depth articles in our future posts. To stay updated about our future posts, follow us here. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.
