Including Psychology in Design Principles

Meeting User Needs: Including Psychology in Design

• Design should create or change user behavior.
• Design should account for quick user decisions.
• Present clear calls to action at the right time.
• Shape positive user attitudes toward the design.
• Integrate social elements and interactions to influence users.
• Persuade users to engage deeply with the product.
• Effectively communicate with users about the design.
• Happy users lead to better results (e.g., more click-throughs, likes, purchases, reviews).

Including Psychology in Design

• Design decisions based on psychological principles, enhance website experience and lead to positive user outcomes.

Principles Included in This Book

• Planned behavior
• Prospect theory and heuristics
• Fogg's behavior model
• Influence
• Social influence
• Framing communication
• Persuasion

Design to Create and Change Behaviors

• This section covers principles for creating usable designs to encourage user engagement with products.
• Simple user behaviors (posting, reading, messaging) and complex behaviors (purchasing, using product for finance management) can be encouraged.
• Chapter 2: Designing for regular use, addresses planned behavior.
• Chapter 3: Risky decision and mental shortcuts.
• Chapter 4: Motivation, ability, and trigger-boom.

Design for Influence and Persuasion

• Users sometimes require an extra push to use a product.
• Influence, social networks, framing communication and persuasion are covered.
• Chapter 5: Getting people to like and use the product.
• Chapter 6: Using family, friends and social networks to influence.
• Chapter 7: Framing communication.
• Chapter 8: Persuasion principles.

Addressing Psychology Enhances Usability

• Example of a poor design: ECSI (student loan servicing) portal, lacks clear organization, visual cues, and personalization.
• Example of a good design: Aqua's (water provider) portal, clearly organized, useful navigation, and personalization.
• Lack of perceived control, immediate guidance, personalization, and perceived security were identified as issues with the ECSI design.

Addressing Psychology Enhances Usability

• Aqua’s portal is a better example of design with good psychology.

Talking the Talk: Conversations About Psychology

• Understanding psychological principles enhances the ability to explain the rationale behind design decisions effectively, but without sounding pompous.

Summary

• Psychology principles are essential for UX and user-focused designs.
• Understanding psychology enhances design and increases user happiness.
• Users notice when designs ignore psychology principles.
• Proactively apply psychological principles to design.
• Persuasion techniques should create a better user experience without manipulative methods.