https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-round-framed-mirror-near-tree-at-daytime-979927/

One of the most important principles in the entire UX design field, which can help you create products and experiences that truly resonate with your target users.

Overview

This particular article is very near and dear to my heart because even though the principle that we’re going over today should be taught as early in design training as possible, I’ve never heard it mentioned once, and that’s a huge problem.

That’s a huge problem, and today, we’re gonna rectify that.

Today, I’m going to share with you one of the most important principles in the entire UX design field, which can help you create products and experiences that truly resonate with your target users.

Why people use and buy

Let me ask you a question: why do your users use and buy your product?

What makes them actually click the “sign up” or “buy now” button?

It comes down to two things:

1. They want a result that they don’t have, or
2. They have a result that they don’t want.

That’s it.

It could be an emotional result, a utility result, or a convenience result, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if they’re actively using, they’re actively seeking to alleviate their pain.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-using-a-laptop-7552568/

Engagement is a symptom of certainty

To that point, whenever you see your users engaging with your solution, it means that your solution is either:

• Doing for them what they need/want it to do, or
• They are actively attempting to get it to do that because they know it can.

In either case, it means that your users feel that there is a high probability of success while using your product/service in an attempt to meet their needs.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/melancholic-woman-watching-video-on-laptop-at-home-3808012/

Disengagement is a lack of certainty

Conversely, a lack of, or lackluster engagement conveys an important piece of information, and that is that your target users are not certain that your product/service can and will solve their problems effectively.

Certainty is your greatest asset

• What’s the difference between a used car salesman and new car salesman?
• Why do we tend to buy new instead of used in many cases?
• Why do we insist on seeing faces before making a hiring decision?
• Why do we prefer to buy products with a plethora of ratings and reviews?
• Why do we trust word of mouth and demonstrations over written word?
• Why do we use one product or service over another?

https://www.pexels.com/photo/curly-haired-woman-holding-a-coffee-mug-7681199/

The answer to all of these boils down to a simple question:

• Can this product/service really, truly help me solve my problem?

Certainty, my friends, that’s what it is. If you want people to use, buy, engage with, recommend, and evangelize your product, they must be absolutely certain that it resolves, and will continue to resolve their pain.

This is the essence of good UX design, but is so often ignored because most training programs only ever focus on the experience itself, but not on the perception of it.

It is certainty that drives users to your solution in the first place. Certainty that the promise of your offer is genuine, and that you can solve their problems.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/multiracial-colleagues-shaking-hands-at-work-5668838/

Building trust with your users

When we build trust, what we’re really doing is creating certainty within our relationships.

Our users want and need to know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that our solutions will actually work for them, and that their time, energy, money, attention, and efforts will not be wasted in their interactions with us.

To build this, we need to set expectations, create certainty about their outcomes, and finally meet and exceed those expectations wherever possible.

Creating better experiences

The best experience that a user can possibly have is that of a magic button or solution vending machine.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-vending-machine-5495383/

• They’ve got a problem.
• They see a solution being advertised.
• Their expectations are set by the offer being conveyed to them and the experiences they’ve already had with other similar solutions.
• They decide to give it a try based on their CERTAINTY of results and if they deem those results worthwhile to them.
• They experience the process of the product or service solving their problems.
• They walk away with their problems solved.
• They are now MORE or LESS certain of your product or service than they were before, and this is where experience design really shines.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-man-in-gray-t-shirt-and-black-pants-sitting-on-wooden-floor-and-working-on-his-laptop-celebrating-with-his-hands-raised-3760609/

Certainty before, during, and after

Essentially the user experience can be broken down into three parts:

1. Promise/expectations
2. Experience of process
3. Outcomes/emotional takeaways

In each of these stages, the more certainty you can help your users have, the better they’re going to feel about all of it, and the more you’ll actually be able to help them.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-a-man-with-facial-hair-8727519/

Some examples

• “I don’t know where my car is in the shop or what’s going on with it.”
  Show and tell them what’s going on with their car. Give them certainty.
• “I don’t know if I’m going to like this movie or not.”
  Offer them a full or partial refund if they don’t like it. Certainty.
• “How can I trust you with my important device purchase?”
  Offer them a full protection plan with transparency. Certainty.

You see where I’m going with this.

People want certainty. It’s the most basic of all human needs, and yet we struggle to articulate in the design space so often because most of our attention is paid to the experience in terms of satisfying expectations.

But above and beyond all of that, if we can’t help our users be certain of their outcomes, key results, actions, and decisions, we’re never going to be able to engage with them meaningfully.

Bringing it all together

So what does all of this mean for you as a designer?

1. Create certainty within your target users.
2. Do everything you can to reduce and/or eliminate fear and ambiguity from the process of your product/service.
3. Follow-up with your users and ask them if there’s any places they felt uncertain of what to do, where to go, or what was going on. Fix these immediately.

You do this, and I promise that you will engage with your users to a much higher degree, and to much greater effect.