This student came to Philau to learn UX, what happened next will blow your mind!!!!

Clickbait! We all fall for it. We all click on these links expecting to get our minds blown, or hope to see something that our eyes would not believe. More often than not you are left disappointed. But is there something they’re on to here? Is there something here we, as UX Designers, can learn from clickbait?

So what is clickbait? We’ve all seen these articles on sites like Buzzfeed, or videos on YouTube with sensational or controversial titles accompanied by eye catching thumbnails, primarily aimed at generating ad revenue. More often than not it is at the expense of quality of content. Users end up on these pages, and are left disappointed at having their expectations shot down, but the click has been generated, ads have been seen and revenue has been made. All of that at little to no expense for the creators.

What does it have to do with user experience though? Well, As Designers, we strive to create interactions that are as natural, intuitive and mindless, as can be. And the best way to do so is to design for emotions. Clickbait appeals to a very primal human emotion… curiosity. Humans are innately curious. It is what has fueled our evolution over thousands of years. So one could argue, it is one of the most “Natural” behaviour that humans (and animals) exhibit.

Some apps make use of push-notifications that are worded in such a way so as to make the user curious enough to open the app. Free to try apps provide the user with a glimpse into the potential of the full version, by giving him just enough to wonder, what lies beyond the paywall. But the power of curiosity can be harnessed even further. User onboarding, for instance, can be carried out more efficiency but letting the user’s curiosity get the better of him. Instead of bombarding the user with all sorts of information at once, it can be doled out in smaller quantities by simply guiding the user to discover those features. Discovery learning has been known to be more effective compared to Direct instruction. Not only do users understand better, they are able to retain the information longer.

Clickbait sucks, but it’s an effective strategy. Curiosity is a powerful tool, and has been the driving force behind clickbait marketers. But there is a lot to learn here. It proves that emotion is a powerful tool, which a UX Designer can harness in order to create richer, more meaningful Interactions.