Understanding user behaviour and motivation in design

If you ask people about the app they use for food delivery, the answers you hear will split most people into two camps: the Swiggy camp and the Zomato camp. Probing further into why people prefer one over the other will usually lead to some deep reflection and vague responses. Something similar will happen if you asked people about their preference of Uber vs Ola. Why is it easy for people to pick one of the two apps but so difficult to articulate why they made that choice? Because, when the gross level experience variables (such as the offerings, discounts, pricing, choices, wait time, ease of use, etc.) are the same, the preference parameters become more subtle. In such cases,
a user’s preferences is essentially being driven by how one app makes them feel over the other. These feelings or emotional drives & blocks are usually hard for users to even be consciously aware of let alone articulate and rationalise.

As the digital landscape becomes increasingly competitive, user preference is increasingly being driven by the more subtle emotional experience parameters. Ease of use is no longer enough. The battle for user acquisition and retention is being won by businesses that are willing to go beyond the mechanics and leverage the psychology of behaviour & motivation. If you are looking to employ these design techniques into your digital experience strategy, here is a primer that will serve as a good starting point for understanding the science behind the psychology of user experience and the three design principles that drive the maximum business impact.

All Decisions are Emotional
We might think we are making rational choices but in reality every decision we make influenced by our subconscious biases. A bias is an irrational assumption or belief that affects our ability to make a decision based on facts and evidence. Every time we make a decision, irrespective of how small or big it is, our biases come into play. These biases act as emotional drives & blocks. Either moving us towards making a certain choice or away from it. Some of these biases are universal and others are individual which are subjective to each one of us. Individual biases (such as: eating non-vegetarian food is bad, girls should play with dolls, real men don’t cry, etc.) depend on our unique circumstance, upbringing, key life events, cultural conditioning, etc. These are not absolute truths, they are just biases which we have accumulated over time based on who we are and our context. On the other hand, universal biases (such as: the Similarity Bias that makes us prefer things that are like us over things that are different than us or the Confirmation Bias which is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories) are subconscious preferences that most of us are susceptible to irrespective of culture, upbringing, gender, etc.

3 Keys to Highly Effective User Experiences
If we listed down all of our universal & individual biases, it would be a pretty long list. However, here are 3 powerful cognitive psychology principles that have had a disproportionately large impact on digital experiences (especially online conversion rates) over the years and also have widespread applicability across a range of contexts.

1. Scarcity: If you have ever seen “only 3 seats left” or “only 3 rooms left” written in bold text on a travel website while booking a flight or a hotel then you have seen the Scarcity Principle at work. As we evolved from hunter-gatherers, human beings became hardwired to view anything scarce as more valuable. This bias is so deeply ingrained in us that we are as susceptible to it today as our earliest ancestors were. As soon as we get an indication that something is running out, its desirability dramatically increases, and we want to possess it as quickly as possible before it runs out. ‘Scarcity Indicators’ are so good at influencing users to make faster purchase decisions that
they have now become a gold standard for driving conversion on ecommerce websites.

2. Social Proof: Our brain has only one job, to keep us safe. One way it keeps us safe is by observing what other people are doing. If other people are doing something, it must be good, it must be safe, especially if those people are like me. The ratings & reviews system across the digital landscape whether its Swiggy or Uber relies on this one cognitive bias to nudge users into believing a product or service’s promise of quality. Amazon has turned this type of persuasion design into an artform. They put a huge amount of effort into ensuring that every single product in their massive inventory has ratings & reviews that deliver the required social proof to users in order to help them make a decision that they will feel more sure of.

3. Authority: If an authority figure (a movie star, a doctor, etc.) says something, we believe them. Individuals who are authoritative, credible and knowledgeable experts in their fields are more influential, persuasive and trustworthy than those who are not. The advertising industry has been using this bias for decades to sell thing to us. Such as using Dentists in white coats to sell us toothpaste because people in white coats trigger our obedience to authority bias. Digital platforms also utilize the same bias to persuade us towards a specific call to action. Trust markers (such as: Verisign) that convey security & safety on payment platforms are an example of leveraging the Authority bias. A website selling meditation courses saying: “Harvard University research shows that this meditation technique results in a 37% reduction in cholesterol” would also be an example of the authority principle being utilised. The authority figure in this case being Harvard University.

Get. Set. Persuade.
If you are new to the psychology of user experience, I would recommend not getting lost in the long list of biases and cognitive science jargon. Start by focusing only on the principles of scarcity, social proof and authority and leverage them to build more persuasion into your digital interfaces. When utilised at the right place, in the right amount, along with the right expertise, these principles can dramatically improve the effectiveness of any digital platform. Of course, these powerful principles must be used ethically not to exploit or manipulate but to drive conscious businesses & mindful consumption.

The author is co-founder of ZEUX Innovation