Lecture 1: Meeting Users' Needs in Design

Meeting users’ needs: including psychology in design Chapter 1 Introduction You’ll learn principles of psychology that allow your design to u Create or change user behavior u Account for users making quick decisions u Present users with a call to action at the right time u Shape users’ pos...

Meeting users’ needs: including psychology in design Chapter 1 Introduction You’ll learn principles of psychology that allow your design to u Create or change user behavior u Account for users making quick decisions u Present users with a call to action at the right time u Shape users’ positive attitudes toward your design u Incorporate social elements and interactions to influence users u Persuade users to engage deeper with your product u Communicate meaningfully with users about your design Ultimately, you’ll create happier users when you account for principles of psychology in your design  Including psychology in design Figure 1.1 You reap the benefits of happy users when you incorporate psychology into your design Principles included in this book The book covers seven commonly accepted principles of psychology: u Planned behavior u Prospect theory and heuristics u Fogg’s behavior model u Influence u Social influence u Framing communication u Persuasion Design to create and change behaviors u This section covers three principles explaining how to create usable designs that encourage users and their peers to successfully engage with your product. This includes simple user behaviors such as reading or posting a message, as well as more complex behaviors such as making a purchase or using your product to manage their finances. u These topics are covered in part 2: u Chapter 2, “Designing for regular use: addressing planned behavior”—This chapter shows how to make users want to engage with your product to meet their needs. u Chapter 3, “Risky decisions and mental shortcuts”—This chapter examines how you can design to reduce users’ mental effort, making you the go-to product for these users. u Chapter 4, “Motivation, ability, and trigger—boom!”—This chapter looks at how and when to present users with the opportunity to use your product. Design for influence and persuasion u Sometimes users need that extra push to use your product. This section covers four principles explaining how individuals are persuaded and influenced. u These principles, covered in part 3, involve elements of design that change or reinforce users’ attitudes toward your product: u Chapter 5, “Influence: getting people to like and use your product”—Influence helps promote use of your product by nonusers and increase use by current users. u Chapter 6, “Using family, friends, and social networks to influence users”—Social influence determines how users decide to follow what others do, and how you can design to facilitate social experiences that will increase use of your product. u Chapter 7, “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it!”—Framing communication will allow you to deliver a powerful and effective message to motivate users to engage in specific behaviors. u Chapter 8, “Persuasion: The deadliest art”—Principles of persuasion govern how users receive and pay attention to the information you present. Addressing psychology enhances usability u What designing without psychology looks like ECSI, a student loan servicing company, provides an example of a design that reflects no recognizable thought to human psychology. The ECSI portal dashboard (figure 1.2) page creates more questions than answers when users land on it. For example, why does ECSI provide four different payment links: credit card, e-check, direct, and international? Why doesn’t it provide visual cues as to what users should do? Why does the portal have a navigation category dedicated to Other that has only one option? Why is there so much open space when ECSI crushes the links together as tightly as possible? Why doesn’t the page state the user’s name, account number, or balance once logged in? Why doesn’t ECSI convey a sense of security to users? I feel confused and out of control on this site and I’m sure others do too. You’ll realize after this course that the site isn’t accounting for psychology backed usability issues, including: u Perceived control u Immediate guidance u Personalization u Perceived security (third-party seals, antivirus status) u Familiar layout for a customer portal (for example, informational dashboard landing) u Persuasive elements of any type Figure 1.2 ECSI doesn’t account for psychological principles of any type on the portal landing page Addressing psychology enhances usability u What designing with psychology looks like Aqua, my water provider, does a much better job acknowledging principles of psychology in its customer portal. The Aqua customer portal (figure 1.3) visually guides me to the most frequently used (and most important to Aqua) options of making a payment and setting up auto draft (not displayed, but it appears in the Payments navigation category). I feel in control thanks to the personalized greeting and clear navigation. I feel secure seeing the recent activity feed and third-party seal. I don’t love paying any bill, but I don’t mind paying my water bill or using Aqua’s online portal to check my balance. Figure 1.3 Aqua accounts for principles of psychology, making bill payment easy if not fun Addressing psychology enhances usability u Both businesses offer a payment portal with nearly identical functionality. But users will view the ECSI portal as confusing, with poor workflows and no guidance on what tasks are located where and lacking a logical layout. Users will view Aqua as a business that values their time and wants them to succeed in tasks related to managing their account. Aqua has done this through effective use of principles of psychology. u Digital experiences that fail to account for psychology aren’t always as obvious as the ECSI portal. How can you avoid designing experiences like ECSI’s? Psychological principles provide a map to guide your process. They help explain the what and why behind your design. And now, a passionate word on persuasion u Making your experience persuasive by making it easy to use, by using psychology to improve your design, and by getting people to engage in behaviors they were already considering. u Being persuasive in the way that Amazon.com persuades users with recommendations, options, and a usable experience. u Being persuasive like Google, with targeted advertising, personalization, and an extensive lineup of useful free apps; u Being persuasive like Apple, with simple, appealing design, future-focused functionality, and a cult following. u The truth about persuasion is much more benign. Persuasion is part of our everyday lives, whether or not we acknowledge it. People need to be persuaded, not because they’re dumb or should be tricked, but because most people don’t have the time to waste mental resources on making many of life’s less complicated decisions. You also know that your competitors are actively trying to persuade users to try their product. In other words, if you don’t try to persuade people, someone else gladly will. Talking the talk: conversations about psychology u When you understand principles of psychology, you enhance your ability to explain the underlying rationale of your design. But you need to do this without sounding pompous. Summary u Principles of psychology are core to UX and user-focused design, so use them often. u Principles of psychology explain why and how people choose to engage in certain behaviors. u Understanding the importance of principles of psychology will enhance your design and increase user happiness. u Users will notice if your design ignores psychology; they won’t use your product. u You should proactively think about how each principle might apply to your design. u Psychological principles provide a blueprint for your design—you can use part or all of a psychological principle and you can mix principles within your design to create the best product possible. u Persuasion is not a dirty word; this book covers persuasive techniques meant to create a better user experience, not trick users into doing something they don’t want to do.