The First Step to Help Users Make Good Decisions

Almost all (if not all) of the interactions that the users have with our product, is about decision making. Take Grab — the ride-hailing app — for example. “Should I take a GrabCar (normal car), or should I take a JustGrab (either taxi/normal car, whichever available first — at a slightly cheaper price)?” “Should I share the ride (using GrabShare — a pool service) or not?” “Should I use Grab, or just take a bus?” and some other decision makings. Our job, as the maker — Designer for my case, is to make it easy for the users to make decisions. One good approach is by understanding how people would normally make decision — the steps. I got this from Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice, most good decisions would involve these 5 steps:

1. Figure out the goal or goals.
2. Evaluate the importance of each goal.
3. Array the options.
4. Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet the goals, then pick the winning option.
5. Use the consequences of the choice to modify the goals, importance the person assign to them, and the way he/she evaluates future possibilities.

How would knowing these steps help you in designing an experience that helps users to make decisions — good ones? You know the first step: You need to figure out users goals. Do some research to find out about these goals. Spend more time — in the beginning, to understand users more, through some user research activities, like 1-on-1 interview or field study. Don’t jump straight into providing options/solutions. Once you understand and are able to figure out users goals, then you can think of options that might meet the goals.