Full transcript
0:12Good morning everyone.
0:15Today I'm going to be talking about
0:17psychology in UX design. UX stands for
0:21user experience.
0:23Now,
0:24why is it important for us to involve
0:27psychology when we're talking about user
0:30experience design?
0:31That's because humans are
0:35complicated.
0:37Well, no surprise there. We all are very
0:40complicated. We all are very different
0:42from one another. Different in so many
0:45so many ways. So, how will tech company
0:48make us choose to use their application?
0:52And that's actually pretty easy. That's
0:54by influencing the one thing that is
0:57common among all of us.
1:00Well, actually that's five things and
1:02that's our senses.
1:04Touch, hearing, eyesight, smell, and
1:07taste. These are our five senses. These
1:10are the These are the senses that app
1:13developers will use to influence you to
1:15make decisions.
1:17So, touch, hearing, and eyesight are the
1:20senses that are available to app
1:22developers to influence you. Smell and
1:24taste You can't really influence that
1:27through an app. Well, you can't smell
1:28anything through your phone.
1:30And I know when your friend sends you a
1:33snap of the food that they're eating, it
1:36would be amazing if you could lick your
1:38phone and taste food, but you can't
1:42really do that.
1:44But, to think about it, that's a scary
1:46level of technology to be honest. And
1:49would you really want that?
1:51All right. So, by a show of hands, from
1:55a visual perspective, do you think that
1:58the food on the right is more expensive?
2:03All right. Do you think that the food on
2:05your left is more expensive?
2:09Okay. So, what can we infer from this?
2:12The food on the right clearly has lesser
2:15food.
2:17But, since it's presented to you in a
2:19beautiful manner and since it has
2:22vibrant colors, it's clear to say that
2:26user interface and the way it's
2:28presented to you is very very important.
2:32So, that leads us to
2:34beautiful interface.
2:36Now, how can we design beautiful
2:38interface? That's by That's by following
2:42two important points.
2:44How much information you're trying to
2:46provide and how are you trying to
2:48provide that information? Let's take a
2:51look at an example, shall we?
2:53Let's look at this menu.
2:55There's so much information in the menu.
2:58It's so hard for your brain to process
3:00all that information on one at at one
3:04go.
3:05So, that provides a certain that kind of
3:09elicits a certain level of stress on
3:11your brain.
3:13And that is called cognitive overload.
3:17Well, that doesn't look right.
3:20Cognitive overload is the amount of
3:23stress that you put on your brain when
3:25you're trying to learn new content. So,
3:28as you saw from the menu, there was just
3:30way too much information that was given
3:32to you at one go. So, it's pretty hard
3:34for you to process all that information.
3:37As you saw from the previous slide, the
3:39colors were just way too bright and was
3:41just off.
3:43And process and colors can also
3:46be pretty taxing on your mind and thus
3:49making a good choice in the amount of
3:51information that you're trying to
3:52provide and how you're trying to provide
3:55that information is very very important.
3:57And that brings us to processing and
4:00perception fluency. What is this? This
4:04is the ease with which we can process
4:08information.
4:10And let me tell you I'm going to give
4:12you two examples of how information is
4:15being presented to you. So, these are
4:17websites of two tech giants and there's
4:20nothing wrong with with the design, but
4:22it's just two different approaches. Both
4:24of these tech companies offer similar
4:27functionalities, but it's just the way
4:28that they choose to portray it or
4:31provide the information to you. I'm
4:34pretty sure you've all been on this
4:35website.
4:37I hope everyone has. So, let's look at
4:40this, right? There is a search bar right
4:43in the middle. There are two buttons,
4:45search and I'm feeling lucky. Well,
4:48honestly I've been on this website a
4:49billion times. I've not pressed that
4:52button at all.
4:55So, it's pretty clear from the layout
4:57that
4:58its search search engine is the primary
5:01feature.
5:03But, they also do offer mail, news, and
5:06so many other products, which is
5:08conveniently located to the top right
5:10hand side corner and
5:12by clicking the drop down box and you're
5:15free to access it.
5:17But, let's take a look at this website.
5:20They offer a lot of the same features as
5:22well, but they're presenting the
5:24information to you like this.
5:27So, the news is right there, the search
5:29bar is right there, and all of the
5:30information is right there. There's
5:32nothing wrong with either of the
5:33approaches, but it's just the way it is
5:36presented to you that is different.
5:39Now, I'm going to
5:40ask you guys to please close your eyes
5:43for a bit and try to feel the emotion.
5:45Try to feel what comes to your mind when
5:48I say it.
5:50What do you think
5:52when I say the color blue?
5:56What do you think when I say the color
5:58green?
6:01Now, what do you think when I say the
6:03color red?
6:07Now, please open your eyes.
6:09Let me tell you what I think, all right?
6:11When I hear the color blue,
6:13I think of the sky. I think of the sea.
6:16It's calming. When I think about green,
6:19I think about leaves. I think about open
6:21fields. I think about grass and that's
6:24pretty calming as well. But, when I
6:26think about red, well, where do we see
6:29red on a daily basis? We see red in stop
6:33signs. We see red in traffic lights.
6:36What does it tell us? It tells us to be
6:38alert.
6:39It tells us to pay attention.
6:41It tells us to
6:44to be alert and to notice something. And
6:46that's why when notifications are
6:50provided to us on our phone, it is red
6:54in color. So, every time you have a
6:56notification from a particular app, it's
6:58going to have a badge beside it that
7:00indicates that you have a notification
7:02and since it's red, it's going to grab
7:04your attention and that's why red is
7:06being used.
7:08Now,
7:09how do you feel when these popular icons
7:12are gray-scaled?
7:14Think about it.
7:16Now,
7:17how do you feel about them now?
7:20Don't you feel just a bit more excited
7:22and a bit more happy to look at them in
7:25their associated colors?
7:28I do. Uh let me tell you how important
7:31colors are to a company.
7:33Uh over the past decade, I'm pretty sure
7:35you've heard about T-Mobile, the famous
7:37telecom company. They have sued many
7:40companies because they have used similar
7:44shades of magenta.
7:46And this is how important uh companies
7:50take the colors that they're associated
7:53with.
7:55Now, sound. Sound is another way for uh
7:59apps to grab our attention and to elicit
8:02involuntary behavior.
8:04And let me tell you what I mean by that,
8:06all right? So, there's this experiment
8:08that was conducted in 1890 by a Russian
8:11physiologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov.
8:14So, what he discovered was was that
8:16whenever he fed his dog, he used to ring
8:19a bell and for over the course of a few
8:22weeks, he continued doing that. And it
8:25came a point where when he removed the
8:27stimulus of food and he rang his bell,
8:30the dog would start to salivate. Now,
8:32what does this tell you? It tells you
8:34that the
8:36involuntary behavior of the dog of
8:38salivating is now paired with the
8:42ringing of a bell. And this is how an
8:44involuntary behavior is associated with
8:47a neutral stimulus.
8:49Let me give you an example. Now, in our
8:51phones,
8:53when our phone rings, we involuntarily
8:55flinch flinch to our phone. We reach out
8:58for it and that is why it's important to
9:02give a good notification sound. Let's
9:04take a look at a few popular ringtones,
9:08shall we?
9:30Now, let's try to analyze what's common
9:33among these tones.
9:35They're all
9:37They do They all have high frequency,
9:40high pitch basically. And that's how it
9:44creates us to be alert. That makes us
9:46alert and that elicits involuntary
9:49behavior of reaching out to our phone.
9:51And just by hearing that notification
9:53tones, you know whether you got a
9:55message from Facebook Messenger or a
9:57message or ringtone from Discord. And
10:01that is the uniqueness of the apps.
10:04Now, let's talk about responsiveness.
10:07Humans As humans, we are habituated to
10:10responsive environments, and we want the
10:12applications to be more interactive with
10:15us. And that's why positive
10:17reinforcement are built into
10:20applications. Let's take a look at how
10:22it is done.
10:24For example, on Instagram or any other
10:25social media platform, when you like a
10:28picture, it's usually accompanied by a
10:31vibration or a sound. And this is
10:34positive reinforcement. This makes you
10:38interact with the app more. Want to
10:40interact with the app more, actually.
10:43And that's a good thing. But also, if
10:45you dislike someone's photo or some some
10:49content, you're not going to be greeted
10:51with a sound or a vibration because they
10:53do not want to associate that with
10:56something that you'd want to do.
10:58That's how positive reinforcement is
11:00done. Now, let's talk about positive
11:02intermittent reinforcement. Now, what is
11:04this?
11:05There have been many times where I've
11:07opened my app, my so favorite social
11:10media app, I've just swiped down to
11:13refresh the app to get new content and
11:15new new newsfeed, maybe.
11:18But not every time do you get new
11:20content.
11:22This situation is paralleled with the
11:25slot machine
11:27in casinos. So, what do you do in a slot
11:29machine? You put in a token, you pull
11:31the lever, and the number start
11:34spinning. 7 7 not 7. And you keep doing
11:38this, you put another token, you pull
11:40the lever, it spins,
11:43it doesn't work out. But once in a
11:44while, it is going to work out, and
11:46you'll feel happy, and you're like,
11:47"Okay, so if I try more, I'm going to
11:49get more wins." And that is the kind of
11:52habit that's being
11:54paralleled over here
11:56to create a sort of an addiction.
12:00Now, personalization. Personalization is
12:02a very very big, important part of app
12:05design. So, the app should be able to
12:08work better for you, basically. And how
12:12is this accomplished? This is
12:13accomplished by building a model of you
12:17based on what you like and based on what
12:19you dislike and based on your
12:20interactions with the app.
12:22So, let me give you an example. So, in
12:23Spotify, when you first sign up and log
12:27in for the first ever time, it's going
12:29to ask you to
12:31select five artists that you enjoy
12:33listening to or three genres that you
12:35enjoy listening to. And that creates a
12:37base model of what your likes are. And
12:41as you continue interacting with the
12:43app, it would give the model will be
12:47better built around you based on your
12:50interactions, based on the likes, based
12:53on your dislikes, based on the songs
12:54that you're adding to your playlist, and
12:56all of that, so as to better suggest
12:58songs that you would enjoy. Ultimately,
13:01the aim is to make an app that would be
13:05better for you particularly to use.
13:09That's the goal.
13:11Now, hedonic adaptation. What is this?
13:14This is
13:15Let me put it in layman terms. We get
13:17accustomed to positive and negative
13:20stimulus.
13:22So, for example, if I eat cookie dough
13:25ice cream every single day for 7 days
13:27straight, I'm not going to enjoy it
13:30anymore.
13:31I'm not going to enjoy it as much as I
13:32had it on the first day.
13:34And that's because that stimulus is no
13:37longer providing happiness to me.
13:40So, that is what hedonic adaptation is,
13:43and this will can be translated in many
13:46many areas in our lives.
13:49There's always a genetic set point in
13:51the amount of happiness that we do
13:53experience on a on a constant level.
13:55Good circumstances and bad circumstances
13:58do come and go,
13:59but that even if that happens, we would
14:02return back to our genetic set point of
14:04happiness.
14:06So, let's take a look at this, all
14:07right? This is Fortnite in season 1, and
14:10this is the lobby of how it was.
14:12Uh this is Fortnite in season 8.
14:15Look at the amount of changes. There are
14:17a lot of changes, a lot of new cool
14:19dance moves, for sure.
14:21But the important thing to notice is
14:22that there's been all these frequent
14:24updates to get to this point. And why
14:27were there so many frequent updates?
14:29That's so that you don't get used to how
14:32the app feels. Once you get used to how
14:34the app feels, you want to you want
14:36something else. It's the same thing with
14:38me and cookie dough ice cream. Now, I
14:39I'm tired of that. I want chocolate
14:41chip, maybe. So, that's how it is. So,
14:43since by providing more updates, more
14:46frequent updates, and changing how the
14:48game feels for you, they can keep you
14:50more interactive with the app.
14:53So, persuasive design. This is very
14:55important as well. This is one way to
14:57motivate the users of the app to behave
15:01in certain way that the developers want
15:04you to behave.
15:05You get it? So, what that means is that
15:10For example, let's take
15:11Let's take the example of Instagram, all
15:12right? So, you've been We Sharing photos
15:16online has been around for a long time.
15:18But then Instagram came in, and sharing
15:21photos was never more fun and never more
15:24interactive and never more awesome, to
15:26be honest. So, when you post a picture,
15:30what happens? Your followers get
15:32notified about it, and every interaction
15:35that anyone has on that picture, on that
15:37photo or video, you're going to be
15:40notified with a prompt of a notification
15:42about it. And that prompt will make you
15:46personally to interact more with the
15:48like or comment or anything that your
15:51followers has done with your photo. And
15:54that is the design of notifications to
15:58make you interact with the particular
15:59app more. And this is done across many
16:01many apps.
16:04So, all of this
16:06all of the influence on our senses is to
16:09ultimately target the dopamine system in
16:13our brains. So, what is dopamine?
16:15Dopamine is the chemical that is
16:16released to make us feel happy. And the
16:20ultimate part is if you feel happy about
16:22using an app, you would use it more, and
16:24that is what it's all about.
16:29So, let's talk about social media
16:31addiction cycle.
16:32Let's see that What happens is when you
16:35perform an action by writing a post or
16:38sharing a picture, what you do is you
16:41wait for a reaction. That is what all of
16:44us do. I'm pretty sure the day where I
16:46post a picture or photo or video, that's
16:50the day when I open Instagram like 10
16:52times more than any other day, just to
16:54see how I'm doing, maybe.
16:56So, what you do is you wait for a
16:58reaction, it creates an anticipation
17:00about it, and it goes on.
17:03So, why is all this so important? Back
17:05when phones used to look like this,
17:08all you did was call and SMS, and maybe
17:11play the snake game on your phone. And
17:13that's pretty much it. But now, when
17:15phones look like this, what you do is
17:17you have 100 other apps out there which
17:20are competing for your attention.
17:22And all your users' attention is what
17:24the companies want, and that's what apps
17:26are designed for.
17:28Now,
17:30I want to leave you all with this quote.
17:32There are only two industries that call
17:34their customers users, illegal drugs and
17:37software.
17:39Now, that's something to think about.
17:41Thank you.
17:44All right.