Using behavioral economics theory to design a better experience (especially to ease the decision making process)
Almost with any product, users need to make a decision to choose something. I got interested in the world of decision making (and Behavioral Economics) after I read Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational and Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice), and I could see how it helps me to design a better experience for people. People always compare things. That’s how I pick small thing like milk for example. “200ml costs me $1.2, but 500ml costs me $2. Although I need to drink the extra 300ml – which I don’t really need, but $2 for 500ml seems like a good deal.” That’s also how I pick expensive stuff like an iPhone. “This one is $100 more expensive, but the storage is double.” Then similar to the milk case, instead of being rational, we behave irrationally, trying to justify our choices, and only after we compare things.
No matter how smart your algorithm is, you still need to provide choices to the users. Don’t be tempted to just provide the best choice. There’s this term called Decoy (you should search about it, I won’t have enough time to write it in my 10–15min post). Basically we intentionally provide choices with one choice that’s less (in some aspect) to another choice. See below snapshot for a concept that I proposed 2 years ago, when I was leading the design for Grab’s Growth team. That time we’re competing with Uber, and the challenge was to keep the users within our app, instead of switching to Uber app to compare valuable ride (and in the end book a ride with Uber instead of Grab).
The goal was to drive users to certain ride type, and we use choices that make it easier for users to make a decision. The method used was by using Decoy. There are many other methods that can be used. I’d suggest you to start reading stuffs related to Behavioral Economics, or search Decision Making theory. If you use it well, you can help users to make the best decision and at the same time helping business to achieve its goals.
