The selective application of psychology in UX
There is not enough time, resources or willpower for UX to fully embrace psychology. So how do we, as UX professionals, decide what to use and what to ignore?
We use what is easy
If you’re a UXer I’m sure you’ve come across Gestalt principles, biases, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and cognitive load. They all relate to the digital world almost seamlessly.
So ask yourself.. Why?
It’s because they provide simple rules.
Keep related things close to each other.
Use the right spacing.
It needs to be functional before it’s pretty.
People act differently when they’re being watched.
Don’t give a user too much information at once, they’ll get frustrated.
Although the psychological research is complicated and hard, the rules that plop out are easy to follow and put into action.
The difficult stuff
Attitudes, cognitive dissonance, social identity, personality, nature vs nurture, biology, self perception, self esteem, belief systems…
These are all things that could help to create some amazing UX, but they require more time, people and money to create something actionable.
Does it make them less useful? Some may argue yes. We can’t live on a pipe dream. It’s hard enough to convince some people to test at all, let alone start looking into all this other stuff.
That doesn’t mean we can’t be aware.
Take an hour out of your day and look at how attitudes are formed and expressed, find out what happens when you give someone a group to belong to. What happens when you play to someone’s personality?
Just because it isn’t feasible to incorporate everything in your everyday work, doesn’t mean you can’t bring awareness with you to user testing, workshops, client meetings and design exercises.
