Psychology Behind UI/UX Design | Harrish Murugesan | TEDxUTA

Summary

This video explores the importance of psychology in UX (User Experience) design, explaining how app developers leverage human senses—touch, hearing, and sight—to influence decisions. The script covers various psychological principles such as cognitive overload, perception fluency, and the impact of color and sound on user behavior. It delves into topics like personalization, positive reinforcement, and persuasive design, highlighting how these elements target the brain’s dopamine system to drive engagement. Ultimately, the video emphasizes how modern apps are crafted to compete for user attention in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

Takeaways

• 😀 UX design is deeply influenced by psychology because humans are complex and vary greatly from one another.
• 😀 Tech companies aim to influence user decisions by engaging the five senses: touch, hearing, and sight, with smell and taste being impossible to influence through apps.
• 😀 The way information is presented in apps is crucial. A well-designed interface can influence user perception, making an app feel more appealing and expensive even if it's not.
• 😀 Cognitive overload occurs when there is too much information presented at once, stressing the brain and making it difficult to process. Simplicity in design is key to reducing this.
• 😀 Processing and perception fluency refers to how easily we can process information, and the design of websites and apps plays a big role in facilitating or hindering this.
• 😀 Colors in UI/UX design have strong psychological effects. For example, red grabs attention and is used in notifications to make users alert.
• 😀 Sound is another way to engage users. High-pitched notification sounds trigger involuntary responses, such as flinching or reaching for the phone.
• 😀 Positive reinforcement in apps (e.g., vibrations or sounds when interacting with content) increases user engagement and promotes further interaction.
• 😀 Intermittent reinforcement (similar to slot machines) is used in social media apps, keeping users hooked by offering rewards (new content) at unpredictable intervals.
• 😀 Personalization is a powerful tool in UX. By collecting data about users' preferences and behaviors, apps can provide a tailored experience, making the app feel more useful and engaging.

Q & A

Why is psychology important in UX design?

Psychology is crucial in UX design because humans are complex and vary greatly from one another. Understanding psychology helps designers create user experiences that appeal to our common sensory experiences, like touch, hearing, and eyesight, to guide users’ decisions effectively.

How do our five senses influence user experience design?

Our senses—touch, hearing, eyesight, smell, and taste—play a significant role in influencing decisions. While smell and taste can't be directly manipulated through apps, touch, hearing, and eyesight can be designed to capture attention and guide users, making the experience more engaging and intuitive.

Why is the presentation of information important in UX design?

The way information is presented can heavily influence how easily users can process it. Overloading users with too much information can cause cognitive overload, which leads to stress. Effective UX design aims to present information in a digestible, organized way to avoid overwhelming the user.

What is cognitive overload in the context of UX design?

Cognitive overload occurs when too much information is presented to the user all at once, making it difficult for the brain to process and make decisions. In UX design, it's crucial to manage the amount and presentation of information to avoid this stress.

What is processing and perception fluency, and why does it matter?

Processing fluency refers to how easily information can be processed, while perception fluency is how easily we perceive and understand that information. Both factors are crucial for UX design because they directly impact how smoothly users interact with an interface.

How do colors influence user experience?

Colors evoke certain emotions and associations. For instance, blue is calming and is often linked with the sky or sea, while red grabs attention and signals alertness. Colors can be used strategically in app design to influence user behavior and evoke specific responses, such as using red for notifications to make them stand out.

What role does sound play in influencing user behavior?

Sound, especially high-pitched tones, can trigger involuntary responses, such as reaching for the phone when a notification rings. Similar to Pavlov’s experiment with dogs, apps use sound to create conditioned reactions, encouraging users to engage with the app immediately.

What is the importance of responsiveness in app design?

Responsiveness in app design refers to how interactive and engaging an app is with its users. Positive reinforcement, like vibrations or sounds after an action, encourages users to continue engaging with the app, increasing the likelihood of frequent use.

What is positive intermittent reinforcement in UX design?

Positive intermittent reinforcement in UX design refers to providing users with rewards (like new content) sporadically, similar to the unpredictability of a slot machine. This creates a sense of anticipation, leading users to return to the app more often in search of new rewards.

How does personalization improve user experience?

Personalization in UX design is the process of tailoring the app experience to the individual user based on their preferences, likes, and interactions. This creates a more engaging and efficient user experience, as the app learns and adapts to better serve the user over time.

What is hedonic adaptation, and how does it relate to app design?

Hedonic adaptation refers to the process by which people get used to positive or negative stimuli, reducing the emotional impact over time. In app design, this concept is used to explain why frequent updates or new features are necessary to maintain user engagement and prevent boredom or dissatisfaction.

What is persuasive design, and how does it motivate user behavior?

Persuasive design uses psychological principles to influence user behavior. For example, social media apps use notifications to prompt users to engage with their content more, which can lead to increased time spent on the app. The goal is to make users interact with the app in ways that benefit the app’s objectives.

How does UX design target the brain's dopamine system?

UX design often aims to trigger the release of dopamine, the chemical that makes us feel good. By creating rewarding experiences—such as receiving likes, comments, or notifications—apps can make users feel happy and motivated to use the app more frequently.

What is the 'social media addiction cycle' as described in the presentation?

The social media addiction cycle is a pattern where users perform an action, like posting content, and then wait for a reaction, such as likes or comments. This anticipation and feedback loop can lead to increased app usage, as users repeatedly check for new reactions to satisfy their desire for validation and connection.

Why do companies use the term 'users' for their customers?

The term 'users' is used in both the tech and drug industries because, like drugs, apps are designed to trigger responses in the brain, such as the release of dopamine, which can lead to repeated behavior and habitual use. This makes users more engaged with the product, similar to addictive substances.