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PoliciesDesigning human behaviour
Don’t have the foggiest clue about incorporating User Experience design into your brand? Here’s how.
This week we flesh out the intricacies of human behaviour and User Experience design, exploring how brands can create stronger – or even lifelong – bonds with consumers.
Miranda Phillips
Strategy
Design
4 minute read
Figuring out what I wanted to do with my life has landed me with a fair bit of HECS debt. But the journey from Psychology to Nutrition and then finally stumbling upon User Experience (UX) Design was tied together by one important thread – a need to understand more about human behaviour.
Now, working as a UX Strategist and Experience Designer, I get to spend my days trying to understand human behaviours and figuring out how to apply that knowledge to design better digital experiences.
Now, working as a UX Strategist and Experience Designer, I get to spend my days trying to understand human behaviours and figuring out how to apply that knowledge to design better digital experiences.
In short
- Good UX design helps brands create meaningful experiences with consumers.
- Providing ‘motivation’, ‘ability’ and ‘trigger’ can help businesses change consumer behaviour.
- Considered UX design can help create lifelong relationships between brands and consumers.
Design and human behaviours are inextricably linked
Every client brief and every business project has a set of objectives which probably say something like:
Essentially, your objective is what you’re asking your customers to do.
This ‘do’ action could be a one-off task, like activating a replacement credit card, or it could be a more complex action such as purchasing a new product or monitoring a chronic health condition. These objectives are looking to elicit a change in or continuation of behaviour, in order to achieve the desired outcome.
So, now that you’ve got your project objective and a customer action, you need to consider what the customer experience will be. What’s the behaviour you need them to display as they move through that experience in order to achieve your objective?
- Get X number of people to sign up to Y product.
- Get X number of people to take Y action.
- Generate X number of new leads in Y amount of time.
- Direct X number of customers to access a resource by Y date.
Essentially, your objective is what you’re asking your customers to do.
This ‘do’ action could be a one-off task, like activating a replacement credit card, or it could be a more complex action such as purchasing a new product or monitoring a chronic health condition. These objectives are looking to elicit a change in or continuation of behaviour, in order to achieve the desired outcome.
So, now that you’ve got your project objective and a customer action, you need to consider what the customer experience will be. What’s the behaviour you need them to display as they move through that experience in order to achieve your objective?
Can we really manipulate people to behave in a certain way?
Sort of.
You can’t force a customer’s hand, but your User Experience (UX) design considerations will hugely impact whether your customers are able and willing to do what you want them to.
UX design is the process of creating meaningful experiences that keep customers coming back.1 And this definition shouldn’t just be applied to digital experiences – it should be considered across all customer experiences. It’s about understanding your users’ needs and optimising the tools they need to reach their goals.2
You can’t force a customer’s hand, but your User Experience (UX) design considerations will hugely impact whether your customers are able and willing to do what you want them to.
UX design is the process of creating meaningful experiences that keep customers coming back.1 And this definition shouldn’t just be applied to digital experiences – it should be considered across all customer experiences. It’s about understanding your users’ needs and optimising the tools they need to reach their goals.2
“User Experience (UX) design considerations will hugely impact whether your customers are able and willing to do what you want them to.”
How to change consumer behaviour
I’m going to finish up this piece with a bit of maths I learnt at uni. It’s an equation devised by a guy called BJ Fogg and is one of the most widely accepted behavioural design theories in the context of digital solutions. Try applying it to your everyday designs:
Behaviour = Motivation x Ability x Trigger
Motivation – When motivation is high, it is relatively easy to persuade people to do hard things. But when it isn’t (most of the time), they’ll do whatever is easiest.
Ability – To get people to perform a target behaviour, you either have to train them or make it easy.
Trigger – This could be a push notification, a phone call, a buy button, an email – something that sparks action on the user's behalf.
Fogg proposes that when implemented together, these elements stand the best chance of eliciting the desired behaviour.1
Behaviour = Motivation x Ability x Trigger
Motivation – When motivation is high, it is relatively easy to persuade people to do hard things. But when it isn’t (most of the time), they’ll do whatever is easiest.
Ability – To get people to perform a target behaviour, you either have to train them or make it easy.
Trigger – This could be a push notification, a phone call, a buy button, an email – something that sparks action on the user's behalf.
Fogg proposes that when implemented together, these elements stand the best chance of eliciting the desired behaviour.1
Creating lifelong consumer relationships
My final advice is to not just consider Fogg’s equation in terms of single deliverables. Good customer experience planning considers a customer’s lifetime experience with a product or company. So analyse your customers specific behaviours and use Fogg’s equation to better your long-term marketing strategies.
on thoughtful CX
Thoughtful CX creates loyal customers over long periods of time; possibly even for life. Take Amazon Prime customers: 85% of Prime shoppers visit the website at least once a week3. When a poor customer experience sees 74% of millennials take their business to a competitor4, considered CX wins time and time again.
Coercing behaviour with BJ Fogg
So what could Fogg’s formula look like in everyday life? Here's an example using CX Lavender.
Brand objective: Help more brands discover CX Lavender.
Motivation: Win CX Lavender’s giveaway when you interact with our Instagram page.
Ability: A simple 2-step competition signup process.
Trigger: A sponsored post on Instagram.
Brand objective: Help more brands discover CX Lavender.
Motivation: Win CX Lavender’s giveaway when you interact with our Instagram page.
Ability: A simple 2-step competition signup process.
Trigger: A sponsored post on Instagram.
References
- Jeff Link, Behavioral design makes it easy to do ‘the right thing’ (22 March 2021) Built In.
- Megha Goyal, Combining UX design and psychology to change user behavior (3 February 2019) UX Collective.
