Growth.Design Flashcards
(136 cards)
1
Q
Screens VS Journey
A
Your data tells you what happens.
Your screens might tell you where, but…
…only user journeys can tell you why.
The “real” story of your customers typically happens outside of your app.
Yet, we tend to focus on our screens because that’s what we’re used to see. It’s a good example of the side-effects of the Law of the Instrument.1
2
Q
Sunk Cost Fallacy
A
People tend to dislike change when they previously invested resources in something (time, money or effort).1
Focusing your colleagues on screens increases their chances of being biased to their own solutions.
Stories have the advantage of being in complete abstraction of work-intensive screens… as you’ll see next!
3
Q
Singularity Effect
A
People are more willing to empathize with a single, identifiable person than large abstract groups.
That’s also why people remember stories with vivid characters much better than abstract statistics and data.
4
Q
Narrative Bias
A
We’re evolutionary wired to make sense of the world through stories. This makes it easier for our brain to process and recall more information.
That’s part of the reason why it’s easier to convince people by using stories
5
Q
6p exercise
A
Now your customer (not your product!) will be the hero of this 6-step journey.
To do that, you’ll start at the end —in the 6th panel (bottom right), write down the happy ending of your customer’s success story.
5 words maximum.
6
Q
Character Identification Effect
A
Stories make your brain imagine that you are going through the journey.
In other words, you develop a higher-level of empathy for the hero of a story.
Neuroscientists have shown that stories are the single best vehicle we have to transfer our ideas to one another.
It’s no coincidence that we use stories in our case studies… and in this course.
7
Q
Closure
A
You constantly try to fill the gaps in comics. Stories and panel gaps are like open-ended questions for your brain.
Comics force constant participation and imagination. That sparks creativity and help you find solutions.1
8
Q
Stories and empathy
A
- Stories are crucial for customer empathy.
- Customer empathy helps you build better experiences.
- You can create minimum viable stories by using 6P Stories.
9
Q
The Psychology of Storytelling
A
- Narrative Bias: You’re wired to make sense of the world through stories.
- Singularity Effect: You empathize more with a single person (vs a big group).
- Character Identification Effect: Stories make your brain feel like you are experiencing the journey, so you develop more empathy for the hero.
10
Q
The Psychology of Comics
A
- Closure: You constantly try to fill the gaps in comics. Stories and panel gaps are like open-ended questions for your brain. They act as a forcing function for creativity and help you find solutions.
- Miller’s Law: The average person can only keep 7±2 items in their working memory. This makes 6P Stories short enough to grasp the overall meaning quickly, while leaving enough gaps to imagine improvement opportunities.
- Pareidolia: Humans tend to interpret faces and emotions even in abstract shapes and inanimate objects. That’s why even the most basic stick-figure drawing can help build empathy and understanding.
11
Q
Behavior Map
A
Also called the Fogg Behavioral Model. It was invented by BJ Fogg, the founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University.
12
Q
Customer Desire Alignment
A
The best way to frame your product is to deeply understand the subtleties of the Motivation axis of your customers.
The key is to know the customers’ Hopes, Pains, Barriers and context so well that you start thinking like them.
13
Q
Power Of Defaults
A
Users tend not to change an established behavior. Unless the incentive to change is compelling, people are more likely to stick to the default situation presented.
This is also called the Status quo bias. It can be a powerful actor when trying to nudge users and shape behaviors.
14
Q
Breaking The Script
A
Unusual or distinctive situations tend to be better remembered than common ones. That’s a key element of creating memorable experiences.1
This “bizarreness effect” is also used by brain athletes to better memorize and remember different elements.
15
Q
User behaviors are defined by B = M·A·P
A
- Motivation: the willpower to act.
- Ability: the capacity to act.
- Prompt: the timely cue to act.
16
Q
Motivational behavior levers
A
- 🔮 Anticipation Seeking hope and avoiding fear
- 💚 Sensation Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain
- 🤝 Belonging Seeking acceptance and avoiding rejection
17
Q
Ability behavioral levers
A
- ⏰ Time How long does it take?
2.💰 Money How costly is it? - 💪 Physical Capacity How physically demanding is it?
- 🧠 Mental Capacity How complicated is it?
- 🤝 Practice (Routine/Habit) How familiar is it?
18
Q
Prompt behavioral levers
A
- 💥 Explicit Prompt The information on what to do next is within the prompt. (e.g. Email, Notification, Button, Timer, Billboard)
- 💭 Implicit Prompt You’re cued to take action through an association in memory. (e.g. Places, People, Situations, Emotions)
19
Q
Mental Models
A
Mental models are shortcuts that you use to understand the world. They are simplified representations of how things work and shape how you think. Mental models allow you to see more opportunities because they give your brain organized chunks of information that are easier to understand and use.
20
Q
General Empathy Questions
A
Q1. 🌈 Hope
If you had a magic wand and could instantly X, how would that change your life?
Q2. 💀 Pain
What’s your #1 challenge when it comes to X. And why is it so challenging?
Q3. 🚧 Barrier
Tell me about the last time you did X, how did that go? What was preventing you from Y?
21
Q
Ask for stories, not just answers
A
For your next user research survey, add this byline at the end of a question: “[…]Be super specific to help us understand. Tell us a story if possible to give us some context.”
We tested it, and this simple byline increased the length of responses by up to 300%. That means more opportunities for valuable insights.
22
Q
Psych’d Framework
A
Several years ago, I used to call this video game analogy applied to user experience “Action Points”.
When I later heard Darius Contractor talking about “Psych Points” during a Openview Podcast1, I found it so close that I thought it’d be simpler to use his terminology to amplify the message.
So I just wanted to give our friend Darius a grateful hat tip for that clever term!
23
Q
Net Perceived Value
A
According to behavioral economics, the human brain constantly (and sometimes subconsciously) perceives value as the result of Expected Utility1 minus the Expected Interaction Cost.
In other words…
NPV = Motivation - 🔥 Friction
24
Q
Psych = M·A
A
Psych is like a precious cognitive resource.
it’s like merging the Motivation and Ability axes of the Behavior Map.
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How Psych works
Every user interaction will either add or subtract Psych (Net Perceived Value)
26
your customer as the hero of a video game, and their Psych Level as their health
🏔 Your job is to help them achieve their quest (not just your business goals).
💙 To keep their Psych up, you need to motivate them and minimize friction.
☠ If their Psych Level drops too much, it’s game over for them (…and for you!)
27
Specific Empathy Questions
Successful Customers
1. 🐛 What made you hesitate the most before you action?
2. 🎉 What convinced you to action?
Dropout Customers
1. 🚧 What made you hesitate to action?
2. 🔮 What would have made you more likely to action?
28
Basic rules of extraordinary presentations
1. Tell the truth
Lead with the truth and the heart will follow
2. Tell it with a story
Lead with a story and understanding will follow
3. Tell the story with pictures
Lead with the eye and the mind will follow
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Systems of brain working
- System 1 is automatic, driven by instinct (or recognition) and prior learning.
- System 2 is slower, driven by deliberation and logic.
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Why brain systems are important?
Because most of our decisions are driven by system 1, and as product experts, we need to master the art of designing for “fast processes” (system 1).
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Psych law
1. Every element on the page adds or subtracts emotional energy
2. Inspiring users is as important as reducing friction
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What is a good psych
greater-than-zero Psych means the user clicked the “Sign me up” button
33
B.I.A.S. Framework
Block
Interpret
Act
Store
34
Hick’s law
Hick’s Law predicts that the time and the effort it takes to make a decision increases with the number of options.
The more choices, the more time users take to make their decisions.
35
Selective Attention
The brain sees what it expects to see.
Anything that's not part of what we're currently doing or what we want to accomplish has little chance of getting noticed.
36
Banner Blindness
Users have learned to ignore content that resembles ads, is close to ads, or appears in locations dedicated to ads.1
Make sure critical information is not displayed as such.
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Edge Blindness
People have gotten used to the idea that there are things on screens that are less relevant to the task at hand, such as: logos, navigation bars, footers, and blank space.
They tend to look at the center of the screen and avoid the edges.
38
Short Vs. Long-Term Thinking
Research has shown that companies focused on the long term averaged 47% more revenues than short-term focus companies.1
Optimizing for short-term goals will find its way to the product and eventually affect users, compromising your user experience and long-term growth.
1AESC, Go Long: Why Long-Term Thinking is Your Best Short-Term Strategy (2018)
39
Priming
Priming works by activating an association in users' short-term memory just before another task is introduced.
40
Baader-Meinhof Effect
This phenomenon happens when your awareness of something increases.
You're then likely to see or hear that thing more often, even if it's not the case.
It's perfectly normal. Your brain is simply reinforcing the newly acquired information.1
1Ann Pietrangelo , What the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon Is (2019)
41
What does our brain block automatically?
1. 🧮 High-Effort: We’re biologically wired to save energy, so we usually take the path of least resistance. Also, a large number of choices can trigger action paralysis (Hick’s law).
2. 🌵 Unrelated: Anything that’s not related to what we want is filtered out (Selective attention).
3. 👯♀️ Redundant: Once we detect a pattern that isn’t aligned with our interests, we filter it out (Banner blindness).
42
What does capture our attention?
1. 🐟 In our short-term memory: We can easily recall information that we’ve just seen (Priming).
2. 💚 Confirming our beliefs: We’re attracted to similarity or like-minded thoughts (Confirmation Bias).
3. 🎲 Unexpected: When something is new (Pattern Breaks), funny, or customized to our likings (Personalization), we usually pay attention.
43
Benefits > Informatio
If you want people to take action with the limited amount of attention, time, and energy they have...
You must make the benefits clear and align them with their interest.1
🔥 Pro tip: Ask yourself, what does the user gain with this interaction?
44
Menu links in purchasing flows
menu links have been removed since they usually lower conversions in purchase flows
45
Anchors
We tend to depend heavily on an initial piece of information (the anchor) to make subsequent decisions.1
Anchoring works with anything that can be evaluated. (e.g., beauty, complexity, etc.)2
1Wikipedia, Anchoring (2020)
2Decision Lab, Anchoring Bias, explained. (2020)
46
Loss Aversion
We hate losing way more than we like winning. (ask Lance Armstrong)
In other words, losing $500 will hurt more than the joy of gaining $500, hence why we buy insurance.1
🔥 Pro tip: Reframing things in terms of loss can generate actions. Make sure it also follows a clear benefit for people, so it doesn't only trigger negativity.
1Decision Lab, Why do we buy insurance? (2009)
47
Discoversbility
It is the ease at which users can find features within a product.
Good discoverability is critical because it directly affects users' ability to see and understand what can be done to take action.1
1Adobe, Tips to Improve Discoverability in UX (2020)
48
7 key psychological principles that can help you re-frame any context so users understand better
⚓️ Anchoring: Comparisons are another great way to make sure people have the right frame of reference.
🍇 Benefits: It’s easier to relate and understand something when it appeals to you.
🚛 Cognitive Load: Reducing the noise around the critical information helps page scanning.
👀 Discoverability: Making sure key elements are standing out.
🗑 Loss Aversion: Highlighting what could happen in case of “non-action” is also an excellent way to help people understand what’s at stake.
🧗♂️ Labor Illusion: Showing the work that is done behind the scenes can help guide users.
👨👩👧👦 Familiarity: Reusing existing patterns can facilitate overall interpretation.
49
Framing Effect
The framing effect is when our decisions are influenced by the way information is presented. Equivalent information can be more or less attractive depending on what features are highlighted.
50
Specifics of framing effect
Decisions based on the framing effect are made by focusing on the way the information is presented instead of the information itself. Such decisions may be sub-optimal, as poor information or lesser options can be framed in a positive light. This may make them more attractive than options or information are objectively better, but cast in a less favourable light.
51
Dark side of framing
overvaluing how something is said (its framing) can cause us to undervalue what is being said, which is usually more important. As a result, we may choose worse options that are more effectively framed over better options or information that is framed badly.
52
Framing again
The Framing effect is when our decisions are influenced by the way information is presented. Equivalent information can be more or less attractive depending on what features are highlighted.
53
How to avoid framing effect
people who are involved with an issue are more motivated to systematically process persuasive messages and are more interested in acquiring information about the product than people who are less involved with the issue.”
What we can take from these findings, is that we should think through our choices concerning an issue and try to become more informed on it.
54
Negativity bias
The negativity bias is a cognitive bias that results in adverse events having a more significant impact on our psychological state than positive events.
Negativity bias occurs even when adverse events and positive events are of the same magnitude, meaning we feel negative events more intensely.
Negativity bias is linked to loss aversion, a cognitive bias that describes why the pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.2
55
Why negativity bias happens
Paul Rozin and Edward Poyzman, researchers who coined negativity bias, have identified four elements that explain why the bias manifests. The four elements are negative potency, steeper negative gradients, negativity dominance, and negative differentiation.6
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Negative Potency
Negative potency describes the idea that though negative and positive events or memories may be of equal in terms of magnitude or emotionality, that they are not necessarily equally salient.
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Steeper Negative Gradients
Rozin and Royzman refer to both negative and positive gradients as the perceived emotional slope of an event. For example, an upcoming dental surgery’s negative experience is regarded as more and more negative as the date of the appointment approaches, meaning there is a steep negative gradient. Rozin and Royzman found that adverse events are perceived as increasingly negative, thus have a steeper gradient than positive events are. Positive developments then have a flatter gradient in comparison to adverse events.
58
Negativity Dominance
Rozin and Royzman describe negative dominance as the tendency for positive and negative events to skew towards an overall negative interpretation. An overall negative interpretation is in contrast to the actual average sum of our positive and negative components. To summarize we typically view the whole of an event or moment as more negative than the sum of its parts.
59
Negative Differentiation
Negative differentiation states that since negative events are by nature more complicated than their positive counterparts, we require a more significant mobilization of cognitive resources to minimize the consequences of the event and deal with the experience, making it a more memorable and intense experience.7
Negative differentiation is consistent with a substantial amount of research indicating that negative emotions are more complicated than positive emotions. Research studies have suggested that as a result of this complexity, human vocabulary describing negative emotions and events is much more vibrant and descriptive than positive vocabulary.
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How to avoid negativity bias
Mindfulness
A study conducted in 2011 by Kiken and Shook found that practicing mindful breathing, a form of meditation, increased positive judgments, and engaged higher levels of optimism in participants. Compared to other control groups, participants who practiced mindful breathing performed better at tests where they were required to categorize positive stimuli. Researchers identified that mindfulness practice led to significant positive impacts on the negativity bias.11
Focus on the Positive
Negativity bias affects us by making one feel negative events or react to adverse events more strongly than positive ones. An exercise to curb this bias would include focusing on positive events and savoring those events to create positive memories. When enjoying an experience, attempt to engage fully in pleasant sensations, and reflect on the positive developments occurring at the moment.
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Example of priming
Some students were given sentences that promoted a healthy and active lifestyle while others were given sentences that did not. The students that were primed by sentences about healthy lifestyles were found to be more likely to take the stairs when going to class, unlike the other students who were found to be more likely to take the elevator. This experiment demonstrates that when put to good use, priming can enable us to become healthy and more active.3
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Honesty promotion priming example
A study from a British university provides another example of how the priming effect can be used in a positive manner. The study examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box that collected money for drinks in a university coffee lounge. Due to the eyes, the study found that people paid nearly three times as much for their drinks than they would have without the image. The findings from this study provided the first evidence that the social cues of being watched can influence people to change their behavior—in this case for the better. Indeed, making use of the priming effect to ameliorate how people act is one way to extract the positive features of this cognitive bias.
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What is priming
The priming effect occurs when a person perceives a piece of information that subconsciously influences his or her next action. These stimuli are often related to words or images that people see during their day-to-day lives.
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Why priming happens
Priming leads certain schemas in our long-term memories to be activated in unison, which in turn leads related or connected units of information to be activated at the same time. Once related schemas are activated and more accessible, it becomes easier for us to draw related information into memory more quickly, and we can thus respond faster when the need arises.
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Priming example consumer preferences
If consumers are primed with words associated with high-end retail brands, they will prefer these brands over low-end retail brands. However, consumers who are primed with words associated with low-end retail brands do not prefer high-end retail brands, thus demonstrating the priming effect in action.
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3 Practical Tips for Better Microcopy
1. Use personal pronouns
Address the reader instead of just talking out loud. Use the word you. People pay more attention when you talk directly to them.
$50 was sent to Max
You sent $50 to Max
2. Start with a verb
Names for interactive elements should begin with an action verb. The same goes for important copy. Starting with a verb is more direct and engaging.
The plans
Choose new plan
3. Prevent concerns
Point out concerning actions before your user can worry about your motives. Be transparent—make sure they understand what they’re doing and why.
Why is phone number required?
In case we need to call about your order
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Solutions-oriented framing
Don’t Feed Fatalism…Put Forward Solutions Instead
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Principles of Interpret in B.I.A.S.
👨👩👧👦 Familiarity: Reusing existing patterns can facilitate overall interpretation.
🚛 Cognitive Load: Reducing the noise around the critical information helps page scanning.
🍇 Benefits: It’s easier to relate and understand something when it appeals to you.
⚓️ Anchoring: Comparisons are another great way to make sure people have the right frame of reference.
🗑 Loss Aversion: Highlighting what could happen in case of “non-action” is also an excellent way to help people understand what’s at stake.
👀 Discoverability: Making sure key elements are standing out.
🧗♂️ Labor Illusion: Showing the work that is done behind the scenes can help guide users.
69
Progressive Disclosure
An interface is easier to use when complex features are gradually revealed.
🔥 Pro Tip: Show only the core features of your product, and as users get familiar, unveil new options.
It keeps the interface simple for new users and progressively brings power to advanced users.
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most popular type of nudges
1. 👥 Social Proof
2. 💭 Curiosity Gap
3. 🦄 Scarcity
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Nudge: Social Proof
People tend to look at and mimic the actions of others. It can take different forms:
1. ⭐️ User Reviews: When people rate their own experience with a product.
2. 👥 Wisdom of the crowd: When a large number of people use a product.
3. 🔰 Certifications: When organizations endorse a product.
4. 👑 People of interest: When experts, celebrities, or friends praise a product.
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Nudge: Curiosity Gap
Gaps cause pain.
When we want to know something but can’t, it’s like having an itch that we need to scratch.
To take away the pain, we need to fill the knowledge gap.
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Nudge: Scarcity
We tend to want more of what we can't have.1
There are 3 types of scarcity:
1. ⌛️ Time-limited
2. 🧮 Quantity-limited
3. 🔑 Access-limited
⚖️ Ethics: Never fake scarcity; users might get caught once, but never twice.
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Act in bias framework
facilitating a user behavior (or any action) by either reducing friction or using nudges.
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The best strategies to reduce friction
🗑 Removing options: The more choices, the longer it takes to decide (Hick’s Law).
🚦 Valid Defaults: Create experiences that don’t absolutely need user input.
✂ Split steps: It’s easier to do three small steps than a big one (Cognitive Load).
🌱 Reveal features gradually: Even if you’re excited to show what your product can do, make sure people have time to understand each component (Progressive Disclosure).
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The most common way to nudge effectively
👥 Social Proof: Showing what others did in the same situation is reassuring for users.
💭 Curiosity Gap: The gap caused by curiosity is painful and people need to fill that gap.
🦄 Scarcity: When things are limited, people tend to want more of it.
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Be careful with nudges
People can quickly recognize patterns and start blocking your nudges if they’re seen too often. Also, if they’re too pushy, it can create 🧠 Reactance. Preserve nudges for key actions in your product.
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Mere Exposure Effect
The mere exposure effect describes our tendency to develop preferences for things simply because we are familiar with them. For this reason, it is also known as the familiarity principle.
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Progressive Disclosure
Progressive disclosure defers advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, making applications easier to learn and less error-prone.
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What is motivation, ability, prompt in B MAP?
Motivation: the willpower to act.
Ability: the capacity to act.
Prompt: the timely cue to act.
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Psych
Psych is like a precious cognitive resource:
- Psych = M·A: it’s like merging the - Motivation and Ability axes of the Behavior Map.
- Every user interaction will either add or substract Psych (Net Perceived Value).
- Motivating users is just as important as reducing unnecessary friction.
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three most popular type of nudges are
1. 👥 Social Proof
2. 💭 Curiosity Gap
3. 🦄 Scarcity
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Types of Nudge: Social Proof
1. ⭐️ User Reviews: When people rate their own experience with a product.
2. 👥 Wisdom of the crowd: When a large number of people use a product.
3. 🔰 Certifications: When organizations endorse a product.
4. 👑 People of interest: When experts, celebrities, or friends praise a product.
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3 types of scarcity
1. ⌛️ Time-limited
2. 🧮 Quantity-limited
3. 🔑 Access-limited
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The best strategies to reduce friction
1. 🗑 Removing options: The more choices, the longer it takes to decide (Hick’s Law).
2.🚦 Valid Defaults: Create experiences that don’t absolutely need user input.
3. ✂ Split steps: It’s easier to do three small steps than a big one (Cognitive Load).
4. 🌱 Reveal features gradually: Even if you’re excited to show what your product can do, make sure people have time to understand each component (Progressive Disclosure).
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The Kano Model: Delighters
Not all features affect customer satisfaction equally.1
Delighters, even roughly executed, bring more satisfaction than well-executed "expected" features.
As delightful features become common, they also become expected. Make sure you never stop innovating!
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4 key things can help people store positive psych (in order of impact)
1. 👀 Clear feedback: Each interaction should clearly show what just happened.
2. 👊 Reassurance: Confirm they’re doing the right thing. You want them to feel “in good hands.”
3. 💙 Feeling of caring: Showing you have people’s best interests at heart.
4. 🍭 Delighters: Going above and beyond can leave a positive mark in the mind of people.
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Doordash store (bias) example
For this redesign, we combined two principles from this lesson:
Reassurance: To make people feel like they’ve made a good decision.
Caring: By offering free monthly reports to ensure you always know if you’re getting the most out of this service.
These principles are crucial to making you realize this is a no-brainer (and it is if you use it properly!)
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How many moments you need in CJM
You instead should boil down your experiences to their top 5-6 moments
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Types of elements in CJM
🏔 Peak Highest absolute psych level in your experience.
🕳 Pit Lowest absolute psych level in your experience.
🌈 Jump Psych increases in your experience.
💧 Drop Psych diminutions in your experience.
🏁 Transition Moment marking the start or end of a milestone.
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Chronoception
our perception of time is subjective.
You can transform annoying waiting periods into delightful experiences by following five principles.1
Rule n°1 is simple: never let users watch the soup come to a boil. Entertain them.
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Journey Improvements
1. Fill the major Pit.
2. Elevate the main Peak.
3. Mark the Transition
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4 proven tactics to improve any customer experience
1. Mark the 🏁 Transition. (Celebrate key milestones)
2. Elevate the ⛰ Peak.
3. Fill the biggest 🕳 Pit.
4. Reorder important journey steps
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Peak-End Rule
You don’t merely evaluate an experience based on the average or a sum of all the micro-experiences. Specifically, your brain heavily weighs the Peaks, the Pits, and the Transitions.
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Common CJM mistake
Unfortunately, many companies try to fill ALL the small pits (let’s call them “potholes”). That’s a mistake… a costly game of whack-a-mole you’ll never win. Plus, it won’t move the needle that much because of the Pareto Principle.
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Hyperbolic Discounting
People prefer smaller, immediate rewards rather than larger, future ones. That’s why it’s often best for your product to deliver a smaller reward now (e.g. a preview of something important) instead of having your customers wait.
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The ROI Of Delight
Studies1 have shown that you’ll earn about 9 times more revenue by delighting your “good” customers (i.e., from a NPS of 5-8/10 to 9-10/10) instead of focusing on satisfying your “average” customer (i.e., from a NPS of 0-4/10 to 5-8/10).
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Questions to understand stakeholders
💛 What’s their vision for the future of the business?
☔️ What’s the biggest challenge they face right now?
🚧 What’s currently stopping them from reaching that vision?
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4 other tactics that will help you communicate your decisions clearly
1. Lead with a story: As seen in module 1, stories rally people around the user, not individual opinions. It can also generate a lot of new ideas.
2. Use the right vocabulary: Having the right words to describe your thoughts is a major asset. It’s hard to argue when you have scientific psychological principles to back up your decisions.
3. Create guardrails for your feedback: Don’t show designs without specifically asking what you want feedback on. It’s the best way to focus the conversation and make team decisions quickly.
4. Know how to answer feedback: Avoid reacting negatively to criticism.. It just looks bad. Instead, follow this quick guide 👇.
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3 steps to answer any feedback
🌱 Lead with a yes: The first thing you should always do is acknowledge the feedback. Thank the person who took the time to care about your work.
💫 Repeat and Empathize: Briefly summarize what they just said. Re-phrase their response in the form of a question that forces them to elaborate on their point of view. Ask questions about what feelings are driving their statements. (What are they afraid of? What concerns do they have with what’s presented?)
🙏 Assure: Assure them that you care about finding the best solution before responding.
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“I don’t like it”
As seen in the lesson, you have to transform “likes” into “works.” Often, it’s much easier to know why you think something doesn’t work than to justify why “you don’t like it.” Plus, it’ll steer the conversation away from opinions towards more concrete facts. So your answer should be: “I understand you don’t like this, but do you think it works? If not, why do you think it doesn’t work?”
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“Why change the screen?”
Your gut feeling might be correct, but unfortunately, we need a solid foundation to justify our work. That’s why user research (GEQs & SEQs learned in Module 1) and data are essential to make informed product decisions. If the data (qualitative & quantitative) shows a gap in the onboarding, you’re good to go. Plus, when proposing new screens, make sure you base your improvements on psychological principles, as seen throughout this course.
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“Change everything…”
While this might be super healthy for a team to challenge solutions to come up with even better ones, sometimes those discussions can go nowhere. Your first question should be: “Why do we need to “make this bigger?” What doesn’t work right now?” Also, when presenting new concepts to the team, make sure to include the psychology behind your decisions. Finally, if you lose precious time discussing opinions on different possibilities, sometimes the best is to test different variants! Remember that all opinions are hypotheses, sometimes they can be good, but they can also be wrong.
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Key sentences
Here are some useful sentences to help you communicate your thoughts next time you’re in a meeting:
“How can we align the copy with the benefits…”
“It facilitates the users’ goal…”
“How can we overcome this user’s barrier…”
“Users will block this because…”
“It draws the user’s attention…”
“The framing isn’t exactly aligned with…”
“It emphasizes users’ benefits…”
“How can we reduce friction even more…”
“Could we nudge people to…”
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😰 The Regret Test
If the user knew everything the product team knows, would they behave differently? If the answer is yes, you might want to reconsider some decisions. Also, double-check with the Manipulation Matrix ©NirEyal to see where your product or feature stand. (hint: you want to be a Facilitator, Entertainers aren’t sustainable long-term)
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🏴☠️ The Black Mirror Test
Considering the impact of second-order effect, imagine a world where your product is used all the time by everyone. Does it end well? (e.g., the Facebook “like” button)
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Second-order Effect
When we solve one problem, we can end up creating another one… even worse. A single decision can initiate a series of cause-and-effects, which we might not anticipate OR control.
The ability to think through problems to the second and third-order is a powerful tool that supercharges your decisions.
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All products/services should
⏳ Save us time (instead of wasting it)
👓 Value our attention (instead of interrupting whenever)
💚 Reflect human values (instead of shareholders’ interests)
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Technology at our service
We need to reverse the current script. Technology shouldn’t keep us busy. It should enable us to do things we couldn’t before without keeping us secretly captive.
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B map from Fogg
Behavior (B) happens when Motivation (M), Ability (A), and a Prompt (P) come together at the same moment."
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Hyperbolic discounting
is our inclination to choose immediate rewards over rewards that come later in the future, even when these immediate rewards are smaller.
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Why hyperbolic discounting happens? Why does the value we place on rewards tend to decrease with time?
1. We like a sure thing.
This means that we are often willing to accept a small but certain reward over a larger gain that is less certain because there is a chance we won’t secure it. Because there is a large window of opportunity for issues to arise, we feel more secure when the rewards are already in our hands.
2. Waiting is difficult
It is no secret that waiting for something you want is difficult. It sometimes takes a measure of self-control that many of us don’t have.
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How to avoid hyperbolic discounting
A 2016 study concluded that “future focus priming” was an effective way of reducing this cognitive bias. It was found that being exposed to words like “future,” “long-term” and “self-control,” actually made participants more likely to think of themselves and their future in this way.
What does this mean for us? Thinking about and discussing your long-term future on a regular basis may “prime” you for making decisions that prioritize it.
A second method, supported by research, is trying to imagine and interact with your future self. Picturing the “you” that might result from your short or long-term decisions might influence you to make decisions that favor the latter.
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Opportunity solutions tree to persuade stakeholders
The upper knot is business outcome. From this there are lots of opportunities that are human-centered (needs, pains, hopes or desires). And from the opportunities there are solutions. And from solutions there are experiments.
TOgether with stakeholder we choose the path
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Examples of principle 'Value people attention'
Medium is a prime example of this. Medium has placed a high priority on readable typography and clean layouts, while also being completely transparent about how much time (attention) each article requires from you, with their ‘X min read’ labels. Likewise, features like ‘Do Not Disturb’ as seen on Slack, demonstrate a respect for the user’s attention. Often a well-rounded user-centred approach can help designers empathise with their users and design products that are mindful of their attention.
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What is dark patterns
It is the practice of trying to trick or force people to do (or consume) something they had no awareness or intention of doing. Some common examples of Dark Patterns include disguised ads, hidden costs, confusing tick boxes, and forced information disclosure.
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Example of the principle 'Respect information zones'
Slack’s desktop app does not quantify the number of unread messages on its notification badge. It understands that the number of unread messages is irrelevant and avoiding the anxiety you might associate with a mountain of unread emails is much more important.
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What is FOMO
Fear of Missing Ou
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Example of a principle 'Provide Exit Points'
Quartz App only has a certain number of stories (5 - 7) accessible at a given time. Once all the available stories are read, a ‘You're all caught up, come back later!’ message pops up, providing the readers with a sense of completion and allows them to direct their full focus to another task.
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About a principle 'Minimize Social Anxiety'
At the very least, product designers should aspire to not reduce self-worth with their products.
(e.g., ‘how many likes will this post get’)
Medium, as previously mentioned, promotes content independent of the number of followers, thus reducing the celebrity effect. A classic example of psychological vulnerability occurs on Facebook, where changing the profile photo makes the user more vulnerable to social approval.
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Basis of the principle 'Establish Holistic Metrics'
The majority of key product metrics ignore the quality and impact on wellbeing of user interactions. To make meaningful progress, there has to also be measurable progress where valid attention and wellbeing-focussed metrics are included as part of a company’s overall measurement framework.
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Designing Mindfulness Principles
1. Value Human Attention — Recognize that any attention-based product impacts wellbeing.
2. Be Honest About Dark Patterns — Stop tricking your users, and make it easier for them to make their own choices.
3. Respect Information Zones — Develop sustainable modes of communication between your products and users.
4. Discourage Addictive Usage — Stop cultivating FOMO and maintain unhealthy addictions.
5. Provide Exit Points — Promote a calm experience by providing a sense of completion and giving users an option to disengage.
6. Minimize Social Anxiety — Fix the design decisions which are making people feel bad about themselves.
7. Establish Holistic Metrics — Create ways of measuring success which incorporate mindful metrics or metrics or people's success, not just of your business
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A way to present research results
Opportunity solution tree. A business goal as a main knot and then a tree of patterned quotes
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Advantage of opportunity solutions tree
It helps us to prioritise. We can show not all knots but only the biggest, so stakeholders don't need to read all quotes
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One of the approaches to align with stakeholders
Opportunity solution tree
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Peak End rule
People don't take an average of their moment by moment experiences. There are two moments that people disproportionally remember. The peak — the highest positive or negative feeling. And the ending of the experience.
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Approach to delight users
Stop fixing potholes and start building peaks
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Types of features divided by Kano model
Divided into threshold (basic), performance and excitement ones
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Excitement Features
Excitement features also referred to exciters or delighters, embody the unexpected. Users do not anticipate them. Therefore we bring delight by over-delivering and performing the unordinary.
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What is the Peak-end Rule?
The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic that changes the way we recall past events. We remember a memory or judge an experience based on how they felt at the peak moments, as well as how they felt at the end.
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The paradox of peak-end rule
To summarize, the peak-end rule states that a painful medical treatment is likely to be less aversive if relief from the pain is gradual than if relief is abrupt.
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Paradox of peak-end rule — explanation
the experiment found that patients who had more prolonged colonoscopy procedures rated their experience as less painful than those who underwent the typical colonoscopy procedure. Additionally, patients who felt prolonged discomfort were far more likely to return for subsequent procedures. The gradual release in discomfort from these more prolonged procedures led to patients evaluating the experience as a more positive experience than the other set of patients.
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Summary of peak-end rule
The peak-end rule is a cognitive bias that changes the way individuals recall past events and memories. Based on the peak-end rule, individuals judge a past experience based on the emotional peaks felt throughout the experience and the end of the experience.
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The Peak–End Rule in UX
In psychological studies and in product design, small changes have a large impact on people’s recollections. When designing interfaces and experiences, pay attention to the most intense points of a typical user journey (the “peaks”) and the final moments (the “end”).
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Example of peak-end rule in UX
A bright color, an icon, or a lively illustration at the end of a successful interaction can solidify a good experience in your users’ memories. For example, Duolingo is an educational app that gamifies the process of learning a language. Its playful and conversational interface encourages users throughout its interactive lessons, enhancing an already positive impression.
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a few examples of priming in user onboarding
1. Visuals Speak Louder Than Words. The subtlety of visual stimuli makes it a powerful tool to use. Let’s consider the onboarding screens of Trello, Headspace and Calm.
2. Setting Context for What’s Ahead. Language learning app Drops primes users with its key differentiator – bite-size lessons that take only five minutes (stimulus). “Only five minutes” is a small investment of a user’s time to learn new vocabulary every day (action). This is the prime in play – one that asks users to commit just five minutes of their time.
3. Permission Priming. In these three examples, the first stimulus highlights what access is being requested (email, location, notification). The second stimulus is the why (stay ahead of the game, chances of finding bikes, increased success). This results in comfort (user’s trust), leading to motivation (to provide access).
