You are *So* Biased
Handling the confirmation bias in your design work
In Daily Life
No one likes to be proven wrong. Humans have fragile egos, which leads them to subconsciously protect themselves from embarrassment. This is why we avoid asking difficult questions, highlight facts that support our beliefs, or only recall facts that support our theories.
Think back to your latest political debate with your extended family members or discussion about flat design. While extolling the benefits of universal healthcare or drop shadows, you’ll tend to only recall evidence that supports your beliefs.
This tendency is called the Confirmation Bias.
In Practice
Product design can be as subjective as it is objective. Yes, there are clear heuristics and best practices to follow. There are also a series of decisions that fall to conjecture. This is why the best design processes involve multiple rounds of iteration and testing before they are engineered.
As fallible designers, we may interpret the feedback from usability tests, user interviews, and research in a way that shows we made the right decisions. Design critiques and user feedback can be emotionally taxing. We have to consistently push back against our tendency to be defensive and work to mitigate the confirmation bias.
Working with Your Biases
We use a few simple techniques to check ourselves during user research and feedback sessions.
Record Your Interviews
We start by recording all of our user research interviews. Afterward, the stakeholders independently collect important quotes, bookmark critical interactions, and highlight insights. (Tools like PearNote and Cassette are making this process simpler.) Make sure to work independently, so you can avoid influencing each other’s primary takeaways.
Summarize Your Results
Collect the team’s highlights, quotes, and observations into a single insight document. Include a high-level summary, description of which hypotheses have and have not been validated, and recommended next steps. These artifacts are invaluable to executives, design managers, and new team members.
Cite Your Sources
When making design decisions, cite the evidence you are using to guide your work. By relying on facts rather than opinions, you will ground your mockups in reality and avoid disagreements based on assumptions.
Accept That Nobody's Perfect
The confirmation bias is inherent to all humans, and can’t always be mitigated completely. Cultivate a team culture that allows for designers to be candid and open about supporting evidence.
Cognitive biases are unconscious. Keep in mind your team member’s good intentions when providing feedback.
Impact
By mitigating the confirmation bias, your designs will more truly solve root problems. They will be based on evidence, not mired in your assumptions.
Additionally, by fostering a culture of candor and openness, your design team can make better decisions with clarity and positivity.
Quintin Carlson researches and designs for Flexport — the first internet powered freight forwarder and supply chain logistics provider. Every Wednesday, the Flexport design team breaks down user experience research techniques so you can apply them in your own design process.
Want to tackle design problems that impact the world economy? Join our team.
