How Design influences Behavior?
How do you want to make an impact?
Design Enabling Behavior Change
Human behavior is affected by various forms of persuasion. Understanding the components that make for a persuasive message is a critical focus of professions ranging from advertising to politics and even public health. e.g.- A major goal for advertising is to have an enduring emotional impact on an audience to influence them to buy the product. This is achieved through a process of co-creation in which consumers integrate advertising content with their own attitudes, beliefs, and values to produce the meaning of belonging with the product.
In the field of UX design, understanding these principles is equally necessary. There are 3 main drivers of persuasion:
- Need to Belong
- Power of Stories
- Carrots and Sticks
Principles of Persuasion:
1. Social Influence
It is common knowledge that in today’s world, we often take decisions based on what is more popular socially. Here’s an example of how we choose to go to a restaurant based on the reviews of earlier customers.
2. Scarcity Principle
Companies use this principle, to provoke customers to take action sooner than anticipated, where with more time, there is more scope for the customer to drift away from the website exploring more options. e.g.- makemytrip.com
3. Amplification Hypothesis
If a credible source provides information wherein they amplify the good part, people find it very easy to believe in it. e.g.- Ola Restrooms.
4. Bait & Switch
Typically, at sales in retail stores. When it says, upto 85%, technically only 8–10% goods have 80–85% discount. Yet the influence of the big number used as primary message in the advertising makes the customer rush for the sale and buy products that do not have the promised discount.
5. Door in the Face
Ask for an uncomfortably big favor, impossible for anyone to say yes too easily, then ask the smaller favor you actually want. Here’s a classic example of that –
6. Foot in the Door
Capturing attention by claiming minimal effort by the customer and adding steps to increase their curiosity leading them to buy the product. Reciprocity also plays a part here, free of charge services making the customers feel obliged to buy in their services.
7. Priming
Influencing the customer such that, they start associating the symbol and color of the brand with hunger, comfort, instant gratification, etc. MacDonald’s campaigning at its best.
8. Reciprocation
Another example where the reciprocation principle is used.
9. Conversion Theory
12 Angry Men. The classic movie is a perfect example where a dissenting juror in a murder trial manages to convince and slowly turn others that the case is not obviously clear as it seemed in the court.
Importance of Memory in Design
While there are many factors considered to determine our interactions with the outside world, one of the most important is memory. Without memory, we could not determine, process or recognize or rate our experiences as good or bad. The memory of how a brand treats you is one of the crucial factors in a customer’s decision making process.
The capacity of the human brain is 2.5 petabytes. If you make a movie out of these 5 petabytes of memory and play it, it will keep on playing for 300 years! Such is the vastness of the human capacity of the brain. Though, our brain has multiple types of memory. Working/ short term memory, long-term memory.
The human brain has the tendency to remember the start and endpoints of any experience. This phenomenon is called primacy and recency. These should be considered when designing an experience for the user. Similarly, Miller’s law, recognition principles in case of long-term memory and among others should be used when designing.
It is important that we dig deep and make the most of this factor to deliver a connected physical and digital experience. The question is, with the influence design has on memory and human behavior, how do you want to make an impact?
