Inside User's Minds: How to apply psychology principles to increase the user experience of digital Products and Services
Have you already thought about why some products are very easy and pleasant to use and others seem confusing and unclear?
Some principles originated in psychology can explain most of those situations. User behavior is usually predictable and this is useful when we are designing a product or service, we can leverage this to guide and help them. For example, suppose we are designing an e-commerce platform, we could use these principles to:
- Increase user satisfaction
- Differentiate from the competition
- Increase user retention
- Sell more
- To leave such a positive impression that others would enthusiastically recommend you to potential clients
We extracted from the Law of UX the principles that we found more relevant and created examples to better understand these laws.
First, we are going to dive into the Heuristics, mental rules that the users apply almost unconsciously to solve problems and make decisions faster, which is the way the mind processes complex information and translates it to simple concepts.
Fitt’s Law
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.
Fitt’s Law is based on the research conducted by the psychologist Paul Fitts focused on examining the human motor system.
The superiority of the second user interface (UI) can be attributed to its adherence to design principles, wherein the careful application of spacing, form, and color fosters heightened clarity and distinctiveness among the various options. Additionally, the inclusion of recognizable payment logos further contributes to an enhanced user experience, facilitating swift and precise identification of the desired target. This harmonious integration of visual elements not only elevates the aesthetic appeal but also optimizes usability, ensuring a more intuitive and efficient navigation for users. This law also covers the proximity a target should be from the user's hand, that is the reason the radio buttons were placed on the right side of the screen, in mobile devices is important to consider the fact that most people use them with only the right hand, but anyway the entire white area is clickable to offer a component large enough to be clicked with ease, even for those who are left-handers.
The “Confirm” button is placed at the bottom of the screen, for the same reasons.
Hick’s Law
The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
Hick’s Law (or the Hick-Hyman Law) is named after a British and an American psychologist team of William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman, they discovered through research that offering many options at the same time gives too much stimulus to the brain and makes the decision process more complicated than the users want it to be.
In the second option, the elements and choices were reduced so the user could be more focused on one thing at a time. The use of steps for forms can also help. The correct hierarchy in long forms also helps, where you should not use one step for each field but need still to consider the amount of cognitive load the user will have while using the product.
Jakob’s Law
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
Coined by Jakob Nielsen, principal of the Nielsen Norman Group, this law is helpful to reduce the learning curve of a product and consequently increases user retention and the probability that they will have success on their tasks.
In this example, we can see that even if the language is unknown to many users, in the first option we can identify e-commerce patterns that we are familiar with, and could even be able to correctly make a purchase. This serves as an exemplary illustration of the profound impact that adhering to established patterns can have on enhancing the user-friendliness of a product. Even in the case of an interface presented in a familiar language but being utilized for the first time, the outcome remains consistent: users can swiftly grasp how to interact with the product, fostering a sense of immediate control and instilling trust. The efficacy of leveraging known patterns thus extends beyond extreme cases, underlining its universal significance in cultivating a positive user experience.
Remember to be consistent within the product itself, using the same color pallet, visual style, fonts, layout, and navigation logic throughout the entire product, so when the user learns to navigate one flow, the others will also be easy to follow.
Following the sector’s patterns is a good way to offer a usable product, but it doesn’t mean that innovation is not welcomed. It should be always introduced gradually by changing a small thing at a time and measuring its impact, or by offering the possibility of using older versions and only changing to the new one when users are ready.
Aesthetic-Usability Effect
Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable.
Studies conducted in 1995 indicated a stronger correlation between the participants’ ratings of aesthetic appeal and actual ease of use.
In this example, we intentionally created 2 interfaces that should be at the same level of good usability and gave the second one a more appealing aesthetic. During the presentation, conducted at an internal event on WellD, we asked which option our colleagues thought to be the one with more usability. All of them raised their hands for the second option, confirming once again what Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura concluded in 1995.
Besides, this law affirms that users tend to be more tolerant of small inconveniences and minor errors if they find the product to be aesthetically pleasing, and to continue to use it long term.
It is worth mentioning that: do not use this effect as a resource to try to hide bad usability or problems of a product. It is an important part of the experience to create visuals that are pleasant to the user but is not the only nor the most important thing when designing a product. To prevent issues from being overlooked during usability tests, we recommend using wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes. These minimalistic representations expose potential problems early on, fostering a more transparent and effective testing process.
In the second part, we want to explore the laws based on the Gestalt theory, which is about the way the human brain subconsciously attempts to interpret reality, simplifying and organizing complex visual information to ease understanding, interpretation, and memorization.
In the image below, you can see some examples of Gestalt Laws.
Law of Common Region
Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.
Law of Proximity
Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together.
We decided to use the same interface to exemplify both of these laws since they are complementary.
In such a form, having the options organized makes the filling process much easier. That is why the second option is the one that follows the principles of Gestalt. Every question has a title and a white background that contrasts with the gray one. Therefore, a quick visual scan of the UI is enough to identify the correlation between the elements and choices. The spacing also plays an important role in the perception users will have about the interpretation of which information is related to each other.
Law of Prägnanz
People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible, because it is the interpretation that requires the least cognitive effort of us.
In the initial tab bar, the intricacy of the icons, with numerous details and colors packed into a small dimension, may lead to ambiguity and initial difficulty in comprehension.
This law is about how users tend to remember and interpret simple images better and faster. It is a better choice to opt for monochromatic and minimalist icons to avoid misunderstandings. It is also a good accessibility practice to use labels with the icons whenever possible.
In the third and last part, we will explain Cognitive Bias, which is derived from Heuristics. They are also a way for the human brain to interpret reality into something simple to understand. However, in this case, the interpretation can be distorted by prejudices and beliefs, knowing the most common biases can help us to design products that are going to avoid their effects or take advantage of them.
To exemplify bias, we decided to use existing product screenshots, because they are directly related to content design and are often used in marketing. We believe that these real-world examples will make it easier to understand the effect of biased information.
Peak-end-rule
People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.
Understanding which are the key moments to intentionally make them positive and giving a grand finale to the conclusion of a flow can make a product more positively memorable. These are the moments that the human brain prioritizes to remember. This was the conclusion of a study from 1993, titled “When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End” by Kahneman, Fredrickson, Charles Schreiber, and Donald Redelmeier.
MailChimp takes advantage of this key moment to use a fun image and copy to imprint in their users' minds the idea that using MailChimp is cool, and to give feedback that goes beyond the simple “task completed”, but also gives users a “moment of glory”.
Humans tend to remember and be focused on bad things than on good things that may happen during an experience. Therefore, it is critical to create strategies to “neutralize” errors, unavailabilities, delays, and all the negative moments that can happen during the use of a product. The funny page not found error screens are a good example.
Serial Position Effect
Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.
The term coined by Herman Ebbinghaus explains how similar items are perceived by the users, the first and the last items are the ones people tend to remember the most.
Pandora’s website takes advantage of it to give evidence to their most expensive gift suggestions.
Von Restorff Effect
The Von Restorff effect, also known as The Isolation Effect, predicts that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.
In a study conducted in 1933 by the German psychiatrist and pediatrician Hedwig von Restorff, she presented a list of similar items to a group of people with one specific in a very distinct position from the others. As a result, people demonstrated that they remember the most about this item, then about the others.
This effect is similar to the previous one, but instead of the position, what influences the visibility of one item is to make it different from the other items of the series. In Canva’s Pricing screen, we can observe the intention to focus on the Canva Pro plan, so they gave it an accent color on the button and a thick stroke on the card.
Zeigarnik Effect
People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik, a Soviet psychologist and psychiatrist, discovered this effect in 1920 when she conducted a study comparing memory of incomplete and completed tasks. She discovered that incomplete tasks are easier to remember than successful ones.
In this example of Amazon’s purchase process, the user has already chosen the item, and filled in information about the shipment. The sole remaining step is the payment, and the user will likely recall and wish to complete this part of the process.
In conclusion, knowing the Heuristics, Gestalt and Cognitive Bias are important concepts when designing products or services. Using them can bring benefits for the user and also for the companies, as making a purchase easier is likely to increase sales. Creating a product enjoyable to use can increase user retention.
These brain mechanisms have been discovered and used for a long time. They help to create better products but keep in mind that knowing the user we are designing for does not end here. There are a lot of other tools you should consider using to obtain the best results, such as interviews, Benchmarking, Usability testing, Card sorting, A/B testing, etc.
Be careful when using these laws and biases to guide users to do the actions we want them to do. Otherwise, we risk being unethical by creating dark patterns, where users are induced to do something good for us, but not for them.
Useful Links
To learn more about these laws we recommend reading the book: Laws of UX, which is a very practical guide, full of interesting examples, and dives deeper into the psychological principles from where the laws originated.
You can also see complementary laws, which we didn’t explore (nor the book) on the website: lawsofux.com.
Nielsen’s Heuristics also are interesting for those who want to know more principles to follow while designing digital products.
