UX Psychology (Part-1)

(This is not boring at all)

1.Dark Pattern

The dark patterns in UX design are tricks used to manipulate and redirect a user to perform a forced action, which they do not intend to perform. This term was coined in 2010 after the boom of ecommerce industries on the web. Bait and switch, disguised ads, forced continuity, hidden costs, friend spam, price comparison prevention, and misdirection are the common dark UX examples.

Let’s go through some examples:

Have you ever thought of Subscribe Now and why it is selected by default? that is the definition of dark pattern it tricks people to do something unconsciously. There are another four psychology principles in the same page, can you identify it ?

1. Anchoring

This shows us that each softgel is VERY cheap compared to the overall price. Anchoring (or focalism) bias refers to the tendency to rely on a single piece of information or aspect of an event to inform decision making.

Example: Show Original Prices Along with the Discounted Price

2. Endowment Effect

This makes us it’s almost ours till Tuesday. The endowment effect describes how people tend to value items that they own more highly than they would if they did not belong to them.

Example: When potential buyers take the car for a test drive, the endowment effect begins to influence. They pretend to be the real owners of the car and as a result, are ready to spend more money on it because of their emotional attachment.

3. Fitts Law

It focus your attention directly on your subscription settings. Fitt’s Law is the time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. Here almost 1/3rd of the screen is dedicated to your subscription setup vs. a tiny radio button for the one-time purchase. Most people will likely start setting up their subscription as a result.

4. Social Proof

This is to help you choose the “most common” option for delivery frequency. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people reference the behavior of others to guide their own behavior.

But have you ever thought of this? This product recommends 1 pill/day, so 60 pills in 2 months. But each bottle is 180! (3x too many… unless you’re a family)

2.Status Quo Effect

Here they are providing a 15%discount which is interesting and attractive.

In status quo effect we tend not to change an established behavior unless the incentive to change is compelling. Here, the 5–15% discount might be compelling enough for people to onboard this new subscription model and change their behavior. But this 15% discount is not directly applied on our first subscription it has it’s own terms and conditions when we click on learn more. So how can we make it more ethical?

We applied 2 psychological principles to look it more ethical:

1. Self initiated triggers
2. Spark Effect.

So let’s open our apps and try to see these terms which we are not aware of till now. Please free to comment other examples. So we can learn together, grow together! See you soon guys :)