Beyond UI/UX: Using Behaviour Design to Encourage Action

As humans, we don’t always behave rationally. Some days, you feel that your decisions make absolutely no sense. When your favourite brand is on sale for one day, you purchase things you won’t otherwise buy. When seeing many colleagues have bought a smartwatch, you consider getting one despite not being sure what the benefit is. From the behaviour design lens, we understand how our unpredictable decisions are made.

This article will discuss 5 behaviour design techniques that subconsciously prompt us to buy or act.

1. Scarcity: When we know something is scarce, we want to buy it.

As a human, we chase things that move away from us; we want what we can’t have; we only place value on challenging to obtain things. This habit comes from our old brain; we want to choose things chased by others.

In an experiment, testers are asked to choose a cookie from two boxes. One box is full, and the other one is almost empty. Most people will take the cookie from the bottle with fewer cookies. This is because 1) everyone seems to like the cookie, it must be good (social proof); 2) Cookies will be gone if I don’t act now (scarcity).