Mind Games: 6 Psychology hacks to improve UX & Increase Conversions
Psychology was my major in college and I went on to get my Master’s degree in media and marketing communication. The combination of the two subjects (Psychology & Marketing) together — consumer behaviour is an area that interests me immensely. You know — how attractive packaging is important for the chocolate bar, the role emotion plays in purchase, the arrangement of the soap in the first row of the supermarket, the positioning of the peppermint candy at the billing queue as bait for “impulse buying”. It fascinates me how psychology plays such an important role in consumer behaviour.
Now that I’m in the web solutions business, the same has translated to consumers of the web and my interest in web design, user experience and the role Psychology plays. Which colours are best? Do colours even matter? What about buttons? Does ‘Click here’ work better than ‘Know more’?
While the understanding of the psyche of the customer is important for a marketer whose aim is to sell a product, it isn’t the aim to sell at any cost by tricking the customer. A marketer’s aim is to understand the customer’s need and solve problems for him by tweaking the product (here, a website design) to get him the solution faster (eg. locating the Login option on a page).
In this post, I’ll share some psychology hacks to help make design user-friendly and thereby boost UX.
Leverage white space
Yes, colour matters. In fact, colours and contrasts both can have an impact on a user.
The psychology: von Restorff Effect also known as the “isolation effect“, predicts that when multiple homogenous stimuli are presented, the stimulus that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered (definition: Wikipedia)
How to make use of it: What this simply means is if you want something to standout in your design or be remembered, keep it different from the rest. Take a look at this example here below
The multiple homogenous stimuli is your design overall (could be the whitespace). The stimulus (the product) is what you want to make stand out. In our earlier post, we explained how white space could help do this.
Witty, catchy calls-to-action are key
Take a look at the example below & tell me with a straight face you wouldn’t be tempted to push that button
Why is that button so inviting?
The psychology: Reactance theory– which says that if our freedom of choice is threatened, we feel compelled to protect that freedom, making us want the taboo thing even more (source: gizmodo).
How to make use of it: Exactly how Huemor used in it in this design. Of course, it’s important to consider the type of audience, the overall design and the tone of the brand.
Or you could use the psychology of curiosity in your calls-to-action like this one:
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