13Aug 24 The Influence of User Psychology Behind UI/UX Design

It’s all about satisfaction and delightful experience when it comes to finding everything smartly organized. It enables you to save your time. Understanding the users’ outlook has always been the key to productive output. In this regard, mastering the psychology of UI/UX Design is crucial in creating user-friendly apps and websites.

The following blog throws light on how the enthralling world of  psychology is pertinent to UI/UX Design. It illuminates the fact that it is important to create interfaces that are intriguing to the eyes of the users as well as natural and user-friendly.

UI/UX Design Psychology

The psychology behind UI/UX design is to captivate the attention of the users to make a human-centric virtual experience. It is therefore essential for UX/UI designers to have adequate knowledge about the strategies to be implemented throughout the entire design process.

UI/UX design prioritizes on creating user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX) for virtual creations like websites and apps. UI designer’s outlook is to ensure that the interface is eye-catchy and easy to guide through. On the other hand, UX designers are in charge of human experience. Their sole focus is to ensure that the overall experience of the users is efficient and user-friendly, in terms of engaging with the products..

UI/UX design jointly focuses on crafting immaculate, appealing and spontaneous virtual experiences.

Psychological Significance In UI/UX Design

• Interpreting the needs of users: It is always important to understand what your users actually prefer. By grasping the user psychology, designers can craft and accomplish what the users need. Knowledge about the psychological principles makes it easier for the designers to design interfaces which are simple and easy to understand.
• Engaging your users: The charming chemistry between a good design and psychology always keeps your users obsessed with an app or getting addicted to a website. To thoroughly  engage users, designers have to be aware of their interests. Designers can include rewards, enthralling visuals and feedback for the users to ensure their overall experience to be an amusing one.
• Upgrading product’s versatility: A product’s usability factor should be a satisfying one. Designers can craft instinctive interfaces by understanding the psychology. For example, to enhance the usability factor and make it appear natural to users, designers can insert key buttons where users generally keep an eye on.

Emotionally Connect With Your Users

Emotions reflect the core essence of human attachment and experience. Highlighting the emotional aspect, designers should draft interfaces. As a designer, one should use the intensity of empathy to understand the users’ involvement in your page.

Good stories are always impactful and ageless. The outcome of good storytelling is always engaging. It enhances the users’ emotional contact with the products they are associating with. History is the long-standing proof that humans have always possessed the desire to connect with others and share information. Thus, designers should incorporate storytelling effects to craft a particular process.

Designers can evoke positive emotions in the users’ mind by creating a structured and visually pleasing page. This can also serve as a resistance force against any prospective error on the website or application.

Types of User Motivation

Drafting interfaces should be user-driven because that is what keeps them engrossed.

Motivation can be of two types –

1. Intrinsic – Users feel motivated by inner satisfaction, like developing new skills or accomplishing personal goals.
2. Extrinsic – Users also feel motivated by outer rewards, like rebates, points, badges etc.

Outline For Motivation

• Tracking User’s Progress: Convey to your users how close they are in reaching their goals,for instance fitness apps to track workout rates,to help them move forward.
• Incorporating Rewards and Incentives: To encourage the users,offer rewards,such as rebates or dedicated content, for finishing tasks.

Strategies For Emotional Design

Design related to our emotions make us feel something special about the product. That is why a polished interface can develop a strong inner connection with the users.

Techniques

• Visual charm – Apply images, fonts and bright colors to arouse the desired emotions which provide the users with fun and energy.
• Incorporation – Enable users to personalize their experience that makes them feel highly regarded.
• Response – ensure positive reply when users accomplish any tasks, for example praising messages. This strengthens motivation of the users and makes them feel good.

Strategies For Persuasive Design

Persuasive design applies psychological methods to regulate behavior of the users. It acts as a helping guide for the users towards preferred actions.

Techniques

• Testimonials – Highlight the usage and benefits of your products by other users. Social proofs and reviews help to win the trust of the new users and motivate them to attach themselves.
• Insufficiency – Underline the insubstantial accessibility of stocks to create  a sense of urgency among the users. For example, leave a message – “Hurry Up, only four available in stock”.
• Uniformity – Motivate users to form small but steady commitments to attain larger goals. For example, user sign-up followed by full registration procedure.

Important Psychological Principles Related To UI/UX Design

• Hick’s Law
• Fitts’ Law
• Gestalt Principles
• Color Psychology
• Cognitive Load Theory
• Von Restorff Effect

HICK’S LAW: It appears to be quite hard to reach an impactful decision on a website or application. Hick’s Law opines that the more choices we get, the more time it consumes to finalize a decision. More complex options can increase the cognitive weight. It’s overwhelming to have so many options, but at the same time it may confuse an individual by making the decision-making process complex.

So, designers while making designs should reduce the number of options to help consumers make quick decisions. Another factor is to make the selection process easier and simpler, similar items should be grouped under the same category.

FITTS’s LAW: It highlights the time duration required in reaching the target area, for example button click.In UI design,designers should keep in mind two things – making important buttons adequately big to be clicked easily and placing regularly used actions within the users’ reach.

GESTALT PRINCIPLES: This psychology refers to our mind’s ability to group things collectively. Gestalt principles are applied in UI/UX designs to create balanced and categorized designs.

In this regard some factors should be considered important:

a. Assembling buttons together to ensure connection between closely related elements.

b. Applying identical colors for related actions to enable users to comprehend the functions of the same kinds of items in a group.

c. Designing a continuous passage from one segment of the page to another to help users genuinely.

d. Applying imperfect borders or shapes to engage the minds of the users to create a perfect image.

COLOR PSYCHOLOGY: Our emotions and behaviors are influenced by the application of different colors, be it red, white, blue or black.

Colors should be chosen in such a way that it can be associated with the action or message a designer wants to transport to the users. It should also be kept in mind that color combinations can be easily deciphered and prominent for all, even for the color-blinds.

COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY: Cognitive load involves the intellectual strive of an user to utilize a product. Users can get irritated by high cognitive load which may result in renouncing the task.

Designers should always aim to keep the designs simple,by immaculate and uncomplicated interfaces.They should abide by the conventional designs that the users are familiar with.They should also ensure that users are properly steered through complicated processes gradually.

VON RESTORFF EFFECT: It is always about which object or element adheres to user’s mind for a longer period of time. This effect is also named the Isolation effect, as it distinguishes the exclusive or rare object from the related ones in the group, and help it linger in the mind of the user.

While designing elements, designers should give a unique look to the one which they want the users to closely follow.

By implementing all the above psychological principles, designers can craft UI/UX designs that are operative as well as natural and amusing for users. 

Application Of User Research On A Deeper Level:

It is about focusing on what the users really desire. It enables designers to design exact products. It is always wise to interact with your users to know them better and understand their preferences. Interacting with larger audience, enable you to get hold of assessable data. Always focus on the areas of improvement when users interact with your product.

 Administering thorough user research ensures user-friendly designs that meet the choices of your users and make the journey pleasurable.

Conclusion

This blog provides a deep understanding of how psychological principles propel user-friendly and captivating designs. With the evolution of technology, designers’ psychological knowledge about product designing is the key to satisfy your users and engage them thoroughly.

User Interface and User Experience are critical when it comes to website design and development. You need to understand the psychology of the customers to stay ahead of your competitors. If you want to maximize the benefits from your business website, contact the experts at Use Per Wish today.