For digital marketers, it’s a common problem of users not interacting with a brand like they are supposed to. The job of a UX designer is to bring about the best conditions under which the end audience is sufficiently encouraged to perform a desired action. The core to understanding this lies in the behavioral psychology that initiates the ‘call to action’.
What triggers a change in behavior?
If you are working on a website or an app that is supposed to encourage users to exercise more, you need to look for the core motivations. Psychology provides two ways to achieve this. Extrinsic motivation like money or some kind of reward can do the trick for some. For others, it’s about the enjoyment or a feeling of satisfaction (reaching a goal) and then sharing their accomplishments with their social connections.
The best example of an extrinsic motivation is the Pact App. Users of Pact exercise to earn money and reach health goals. This would work well with the audience group that isn’t self-motivated to exercise. In other words, these are the people who don’t enjoy exercising. On the other hand, websites like Freeletics try to promote exercising by rewarding points to its users. This would be just like a game that comes up with a level of greater difficulty and challenge every time.
So where does UX fit into all this?
It is only by a deeper understanding of the end user and the way they interact with products, can we expect to come up with an interface that delivers value. Personas, the journey of customer experience can become useful tools to capture insights and thus serve as important references in the design process.
What makes a UX design fit for your users?
Generally speaking, people who use apps and websites to do certain kind of activity, ranging from shopping to exercising, follow these cues.
Users don’t want to think or work more than they need to
They will try to do the least to get things done and it’s better to present all necessary information that will build trust and make them ‘take the action’. Marketers also need to focus on affordability presented on the screen. Also, defaults in forms allow people to do less manual work.
Customers/users have their limitations
Users will only embrace as much information they need before they start losing interest. For UX designers, it thus becomes important to provide all the necessary information in a format that is easy to scan and read better.
Mistakes are a part of the process
“Its human to err” and this statement can be very important for UX designers. Designers will need to anticipate what kind of mistakes users might commit and make it easy to rewrite/undo or go back.
Customers are social
Technology has been a great motivator to build relationships, share news, and even encourage buying behavior. UX design should include all this to maximize the effects.
The complicated human memory
We only remember things that we want to. Research also shows that the average human can remember only 3-4 items/tasks at a time. Further, human memory can be fragile and degrade quickly. Only a product and interface worth remembering is carried forward in the journey.
Design is the way we like to interact with the world. The easier it gets, the better can it express and communicate our needs.