Humans are lazy
Humans are lazy by nature. If you give them too many obstacles to get a thing, they might give up.
Avoid too lengthy forms to convert better. Same thing happens with eCommerce industry.
Cart Abandonment Rate is 69% the second major reason for this is Account creation.
Decision Paralysis
Don’t overwhelm users with too many choices. When presented with more choices or too much infomrmation to decide, human mind gives up or unable to make a decision.
Example:
- Give users few options to choose from
- Have you even seen a website with more than 4 Pricing packages?
People don’t read, they scan
People don’t read on websites, they scan. Humans are only interested in information they need. There are two scanning patterns:
- Z-pattern
- F-pattern
User makes mistakes
Even if your app scores 100% on usability scale, users still make mistakes. There are two ways you can limit this
- Don’t let it happen in the first place
- Guide the user to fix the mistake easily (when users delete an email Gmail, there is an Undo button)
Distraction
From a UX perspective, we can design software, websites and all digital interfaces to minimize distraction and focus the user’s attention onto one task at a time and don’t put burden on our user’s brain.
Example: Google search term prediction when you type something.
How humans make decisions?
Most of the decisions made by users are by Unconscious Mind (OLD brain). Most mental processing occurs unconsciously.
Example: It takes 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about a site - all a customer needs to decide whether they’ll leave or stay.
Trust and First Impressions
According to web credibility research from Stanford, 75% of users admit to making judgements about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design
People are more likely to purchase products if they perceive a high degree trust. This is influenced by the level of overall user experience and perceived quality of product.
Rational and calculated decisions
Rational or new brain kicks in when you need to compare things or when calculations are neccesary. Also when OLD brain can’t make a decision, it will get help from concious brain.
Like when users compare two products while shopping online side by side and see the difference in features. That’s your NEW brain
Humans hate change
Humans resist change. When a website gets a totally different redesign, most users don’t like it at all. They will start complaining about it.
Solution: Progressive change and consistency in design. If Facebook moves its button on each post to the top. What do you think will happen?
Do we really need a new solution
Before making any change see if users really need a new solution or you just need to adjust the old one for better UX
Ex: Yahoo and Digg failed when they introduced new redesigned websites. Digg’s traffic dropped by more than 25% in USA & UK.
Actions are goal-oriented
Our actions are based on our goals. Whatever we do, there is an aim behind it
EX: I’m using Google to search for a Painkiller medicine. So goals are what makes different uses of the same product possible
That is why Goals an Motivations recorded in User Interviews
Change Blindness
You are blind to almost anything other than your goal. That is why we are blind to changes which we are not interested in.
EX: I’m searching for a video so I will skip all the articles and webpages on that topic. My eyes will be constantly looking for videos. (SCANNING is normal human behaviour)
Final words
Don’t try to follow trends, try to be loyal to your customers first.