Post written by
Andrew Kucheriavy
Despite advances in business intelligence tools and data analytics, getting into the minds of consumers to predict behavior has proven difficult. While intelligence platforms and big data provide tangible insights, they are limited to establishing patterns or segmenting and predicting behavior. They can’t say why decisions are made. For this reason, businesses are seeking to understand how people make decisions to create better user experiences (UX) which, in turn, increases sales, improves customer satisfaction and reduces costs.
In my experience, I’ve found that psychology is the most important tool to help us understand how users make decisions. This “how” influences the design of websites, applications and devices that provide the direct link for how users interact with companies, services and products.
Why You Should Map The ‘Why’ Behind Customer Decisions
Understanding how people make decisions enables you to develop evidence-based strategies and make data-driven design choices. It’s easy for stakeholders to project their beliefs onto these strategies. (At my agency, it’s a roadblock we deal with frequently.) This is what Ross and others have tagged the “false consensus” – a byproduct of egocentric bias.
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They define this consensus as assumptions fueled by a tendency to overestimate how much other people share our own beliefs and behaviors. I often find that A/B testing and UX testing elicit results contradictory to what executives assume about their company’s website, but that is precisely why testing is important.
The Psychology Of User Decision‑Making
Although pinpointing exact behavior is nearly impossible, certain psychological principles can help businesses understand how consumers might think or behave. These include the following.
1. Don’t overwhelm buyers with options.
Consumers don’t like being inundated with choices. In fact, according to Sheena lyengar’s The Art of Choosing, having too many choices can paralyze thought processes. Customers have a “flee” mentality when confronted with too many choices, invariably pushing their buying decision to another time or place.
When designing websites, software or applications, remember that less is more. Resist the impulse to give users everything by limiting things to four to six choices, maximum. If you must offer more, consider designing a “wizard” that helps users make choices in a progressive way by giving them several options at a time. We’ve done this for numerous clients with overwhelmingly positive results.
2. Make customers feel like they’re in control.
People equate having choices with having control. This couldn’t be any truer for consumers in regards to their buying. The more a consumer feels a decision is truly theirs, the more likely they will follow through on it.
Therefore, good UX offers users multiple ways to complete tasks so they can choose the path that best suits them. Putting the customer in the driver’s seat is the secret behind the success of companies like Amazon and AirBnB.
3. Use multi-attribute decision-making.
Multi-attribute decision-making refers to giving consumers additional reasons to make a decision. It’s adding extra value or “positive” attributes to compensate for reasons consumers might reject the choice.
For example, you’ll hear a customer say, “I don’t really like the model, I bought it because of XYZ features.” That is multi-attribute decision-making. When designing your UX, itemize key features of each product or choice so that customers can identify positive features to compensate for ones they consider “negative.”
4. Remember: People think they’re rational, even though they’re not.
When people make decisions (including purchases), they feel they’ve made the best choice of their options, maximizing utility every time. This is a mental calculation of cost versus perceived benefit. However, it’s rarely accurate.
Heuristics are subconscious rules that have been found to play a big role in how people make decisions. Some of the most relevant UX heuristics include:
- Priming: Priming refers to seemingly intangible things that alter a consumer’s mood and ultimately influence decisions. Examples of priming in UX design include optimizing colors, messages, images and experiences to “prime” users’ emotions. This is why you see mouth-watering photography on restaurant websites. Apps like OpenTable choose colors such as red and yellow that are known to be appetite stimulants.
- Social Proof: Humans find it easy to mirror other’s behavior. That is why we want to know how many people liked an article and which restaurant is recommended. Consumers are unconsciously looking for validation to make decisions. Businesses can leverage this by using social media to provide case studies, testimonials and product ratings from real customers.
- Framing Effect Bias: Presentation can also affect reception. Hearing that something is 25% empty or 75% full means the same thing, but elicits a different response. Knowing when and how to frame is essential for businesses. Using a positive spin and making messages user-centric can make a huge difference. For example, 75% lean ground beef as opposed to 25% fat.
- Prospect Theory: Nobody likes to feel as though they’re losing out on a great deal. Savvy marketers know how to express both scarcity and savings to prospective buyers. Examples include limited time promotions or limited stock. This causes a sense of urgency on the part of the buyer; for instance, only X days left or only Y products left in stock.
Bring Everything Together To Create Great UX
All of these observations help understand the psychology of user experience and consumer behavior. However, it’s also clear that good UX design is a key factor in helping users make decisions. With this is mind, I recommend that businesses prioritize improving UX.
By assessing the usability of their products, websites and applications, they will be better placed to uncover the difficulties consumers may face and address them.