If you’ve read some of my articles in the past then you’ll know the emphasis that I place on understanding behavioural psychology in order to achieve the best level of UX possible, and I believe a key component of this is within how we subtly and subconsciously view and navigate the world around us, both physically and digitally.

Continuing on from my last article, we’ll explore 7 cognitive biases that influence and change the landscape in which our users navigate, in order to streamline our design processes to create A grade experiences!

If you haven’t already checked out my first two articles on cognitive biases that impact us as designers, feel free to have a quick read here at https://bit.ly/3J9k8Lc and here at https://bit.ly/3vYfg6j (Don’t worry about needing to read them before this one, they’re both completely independent!)

#1 Familiarity Bias

Familiarity bias is the subconscious allure towards things that are already familiar to us, and fit snug into our world view.

Inherently we believe in our rationality, that our decisions came from a purely logical place influenced by no external factors, but if you know anything about psychology, then you’ll be thinking ‘bullshit!’.

Indeed a fair margin of our thoughts are beliefs that are driven by the iceberg underneath the water called the ‘subconscious’, and it plays into all our actions and patterns through waking life, and our interaction with products.

As designers, there’s no need to fret! Simply do as our users want, and give them familiarity. Don’t reinvent the wheel when there is no valid reason to, at the affordance of confusing the user!

#2 Sunk Cost Effect

In the words of some of the finest investors, ‘You’ve not lost money until you close the trade’.

The Sunk Cost Effect displays our irrational decision making ability when confronted with a perceived loss, be it time, money or effort, that has already been invested.

This cognitive bias is a huge problem for designers, not so much in that we struggle to create products that solve the effect (this is done simply by following foundational design principles, and whilst oversimplifying it massively, giving your users good experiences!), but rather we can struggle to highlight the benefits of what we or our products can offer over long established competition that does the job barely even half as well!

We must keep this effect in mind when marketing both ourselves as designers, and our products, defining efficiently and simply (keyword simple here if you remember the speak-easy effect from my last article on cognitive biases here: https://bit.ly/3vYfg6j)

#3 Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect shows us that we unconsciously remember tasks that haven’t been completed rather than completed ones (sometimes we’re too harsh on ourselves, hey?).

These tasks heavily weigh on our minds until reaching completion, and this can be a very useful tool in our kit as designers. When we create products, content or anything of the sort, if you want users to come back or to consume more, accentuate its state of incompletion and that there’s more for them to return to enjoy. One method of achieving this without instilling feature creep or overworking yourself for content, is distilling an element down into smaller parts, enabling the reader to not only digest the information better, but also desire to return and finish off what they started.

#4 Serial Position Effect

Another interesting one for memory here is the Serial Position Effect, which states that we tend to remember the items first and last in a sequence the most.

It’s easy to see the power that we can provide as designers to our users with this one by giving them the most valuable information first and last, one way of doing this could be by creating a brief summary of points at the end of an article (inspired by yours truly).

#5 Cashless Effect

When we can’t see physical money exchanging hands and leaving our possession, we spend more, and feel little resistance in doing so.

I hesitate to put the cashless effect in the box of ‘Unethical Design’, but it definitely teeters the border.

The key ideas here that can be used ethically are to keep it simple and quick for your users, if you want sales don’t make people question and double check whether or not they really want what you’re selling. Make that basket visible and well contrasting, give a big button to pay, and expedite that checkout process as much as technically possible!

If you want to achieve the opposite of increasing consumption for whatever reason, be it personally spending less or influencing users to eat less junk food, then reversing the ‘make it simple’ principle solves this, as you must make it as difficult and painful as possible for the task to complete.

#6 Goal Gradient Effect

As we reach closer to a milestone, our motivation to proceed increases exponentially

Duolingo is one of note that applies this principle very well throughout several features on their platform, but for now I’ll just mention their ‘Leagues’, which in essence give you a ranking depending on how often you’ve practised, but you must place in the top bracket to proceed. Once you’ve put that first bit of effort in, you’re immediately placed on a path towards reaching a set goal of rising to the next league, and this is a very powerful nudge that we as designers can learn from and implement within our designers to increase use and consumption!

#7 Decision Fatigue

The more decisions we make, the worse they become.

Decision Fatigue is a very simple principle but it is often overlooked in design, a good place to find violation of this is within the onboarding process. How often have you had to go through an onboarding so tedious and vast in its options that not only do you lose interest and make decisions you normally wouldn’t or don’t fully comprehend, possibly even all together give up on the process? I know I have.

Listen to these words and make them your doctrine for design: ‘Keep it simple’.

In Summary

That’s another 7 cognitive biases down, and a step towards creating better experiences for our users utilising subconscious principles of behaviour!

Many of these effects will go unknown and bypass regular cognition, and because of this it’s ever important to remember to utilise psychology ethically as a tool for good, rather than a weapon of harm, addiction, and distraction. As a designer, it is our job to ensure we uphold ethical standards of practice, and to understand that our users respect this far more than any other approach, resulting in not only a stronger brand image, but helps open the path towards tech for good.

• Familiarity Bias: We prefer things that we are already familiar with.
• Sunk Cost Effect: We hesitate to pull out of something that we’ve invested effort into.
• Zeigarnik Effect: Incomplete tasks are easier to remember than complete ones.
• Serial Position Effect: Memory is affected by the position of information in a sequence, particularly the first and last items.
• Cashless Effect: We tend to spend more using digital currency, rather than physical.
• Goal Gradient Effect: Motivation increases as we move closer towards a goal.
• Decision Fatigue: The quality of our decisions decreases the more we make in a session.

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