7 Design Psychologies Every Designer Should Know
Ashutosh Chandra | 11th June 2020
Designers need to come up with innovative concepts and ideas to make the design work for web products. A designer, apart from just creating designs, also has to create connections, trust, and brand between users and their designs. In this blog we have discussed seven design psychologies a designer should know. Also, we have discussed how they affect users and their decision making while purchasing a product. For assistance related to designs and user experience, check out our UI UX design services.
7 Design Psychologies Every Designer Should Know:
1. We Make Rational Choices Based On How We Perceive
We make choices depending on how we perceive something. Consider the case of a popcorn seller in a cineplex. He wants to sell a popcorn bucket that has a higher price first. But people tend to choose the less costly bucket available as it is cheaper. But to sell the large bucket popcorn, he adds another bucket which is slightly less costly than the larger option. Now people tend to choose the medium-sized popcorn bucket and feel safer for there choice. But they notice that there isn’t much of a price difference between medium and the larger one. So finally they end up buying the largest popcorn bucket.
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2. Too Many Options Confuse Us
We get confused when too many options are available. When a user has to choose among a myriad of choices, they will have a paradox in decision making. Users choose easily when they have fewer choices, and ending up buying something as well. So recommending one or few choices for users lets them quickly make a decision. For UI UX related assistance, go to our prototype designing services.
3. We Get Influenced By Well-Known People
It’s a fact that well-known personalities influence us in so many ways. That’s why when people see feedback or review from a well-known person or a brand, people tend to trust easily. Some of the examples of authority are expert’s recommendation, press releases, or a celebrity’s review.
At the same time, reviews should not be like a promotional shout out. Instead, the more natural feedback or reviews are, the more trust it creates.
4. We Like What Others Like
This is a kind of social proof for us. We like something when we know other people also like it. When businesses show their users that “Society likes it, so you may too” they are presenting a social proof. All the ratings, reviews, and testimonials that we see on websites and commercials are examples of social proof.
Most users purchase a product that has a good rating by a group of people. Good ratings from various people build trust and credibility about the product. But sometimes ratings and reviews don’t work and seem fake if there are less number of ratings and reviews. That’s why businesses need to encourage their users to leave ratings and reviews.
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5. The Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)
We as humans hate to miss out on things we like. We fear missing out a moment being shared with other people. That’s why we start posting status updates and calling our close friends and relatives to remind them of our presence.
We also fear missing out to see status updates from other people, so we keep viewing it. This fear of missing out urges us to take action. The same psychology applies to ecommerce platforms when they show scarcity of products. Scarcity urges people to purchase the product before it goes out of stock.
6. We Give Something When We Get Something
We are skeptical of sharing our data until we fully trust somebody. The same psychology applies when asking a visitor to sign up on a website. It’s quite difficult to persuade a visitor to sign up unless businesses offer them something before asking for something.
So businesses must offer their visitors something such as free ebooks, reports, and analysis, or any reward to gain their trust.
7. We love Rewards
We love rewards and when we get rewards for our work at certain intervals, we feel motivated. Similarly, when businesses offer rewards, bonuses, or coupons to their users, they get motivated to purchase more of their products. Designers can design those rewards in the form of gamification which works more effectively.
Conclusion
Although these design psychologies mostly work, designers must think before using them in all their projects. Designers must make wise decisions based on the context, target users, and nature of a product. Overusing these methods is also not a good idea because then it will create an unethical dark pattern, which may lead to product failure. Designers must keep mental models in mind while designing products to successfully induce users to take action.
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