Design ❤️Psychology #37

Editor's pick

🔥Positive Reinforcement In UX Design 🔥

Howdy Cognitive UXers! 😉 Be aware of that from time to time I’ll pick articles, which arouse my interest so much that I’ll highlight them. The next one could be yours! 🚀 Too often we describe the user experience as monolithic — a seamless, fluid, uninterrupted entity. In reality, that is not the case. A user experience consists of thousands of minuscule exchanges between user and platform. That is right: the fundamental unit of UX design is an interaction. That is why I find the word to be such an apt embodiment. So how do we create “good” interactions? If you are looking for the simplest way to do it (and as UXers, we always are), then look no further than positive reinforcement.

Psychology in UX

Sympathy vs. Empathy in UX

As UX professionals, it is our job to advocate on behalf of our users. To do it, we must understand them. Understanding our users means building empathy for human beings who experience the product or service we create. In an effort to practice empathy, many teams mistakenly practice sympathy. Although these words have different meanings, teams often incorrectly use sympathy and empathy interchangeably. This confusion results in a large gap in their understanding and in an inability to address real human needs.

Combining UX Design And Psychology

In psychology, we distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. This means that someone can be driven to do something either by external factors, like the prospect of receiving a reward, such as money, or by internal factors, like the enjoyment derived from doing an activity.

A website or app that encourages people to exercise more might offer a reward whenever a user exercises, thus creating extrinsic motivation for the person to show that behavior. The Pact app ran with this idea by allowing users to earn money by reaching their health goals.

Persuasive Design

The Psychology of Rating Systems in UX

Uber, like other consumer services, has an interesting rating system, both for passengers and drivers. Arjun champions this passenger rating system with a score of 4.91, not because he strategizes but because he’s genuinely nice and loves to strike a conversation! He recently noticed one of the drivers throwing him a 1-star rating. Arjun was taken aback. Out of curiosity, he asked the driver the reason for such a low rating. The driver smiled and explained — “Sir, this is not low. I gave you a №1 rating!”.

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User Research & Psychology

Motivational interviewing is the UX research tool you haven’t read about

The term was coined by clinical psychologist William Miller, who described MI as “directive client-centered counseling approach for initiating behavior change by helping clients to resolve ambivalence”. Its clinical use is to help patients change their lifestyle by altering, adopting, or eradicating ingrained habits. It’s not necessarily a set of techniques; rather, it’s a style or approach to assisting patients in overcoming ambivalence and cultivating new habits.