In the digital age, psychology plays an important role in improving the user experience by understanding user needs and behaviors, using aesthetic design, and improving the user experience. This article will explain the application of psychology in design, let's take a look.
In today's digital age, design is not only an aesthetic pursuit, but also an important factor that focuses on user experience. Psychology plays a crucial role in design, and designers are able to create a more humane user experience by understanding user needs and behaviors, applying the principles of color and emotion, optimizing user interface design, and guiding behavior change.
1. Understand user needs and behaviors
Mental models help us understand how users interact with the product, and in UX design, this means digging deeper into the user's mindset and decision-making process. For example, through user interviews and behavioral observations, designers can identify common pitfalls and obstacles when using the product, and then simplify the complex process by design, making the product more intuitive.
This approach not only improves user satisfaction, but also reduces the Xi curve and makes it easier for new users to get started. In addition, understanding the minds of our users can help us better understand their needs, goals, and behavior patterns.
How the user's mental model is formed
The process of building a mental model for users: It is through previous experience and knowledge to establish a mental model of the individual, so as to guide the individual's judgment and behavior.
There are two aspects of "experience" and "knowledge" based on the user's past experience, on the one hand, it is combined with the user's self-awareness, and on the other hand, it is combined with the current scene. For example, the user's living environment, educational background, childhood, etc., different experiences will produce different mental models and trigger different user behaviors.
Of course, the user's mental model will also produce a similar common model according to social factors, psychological instincts, common cognition, etc., such as the product's [user portrait] is to find common phenomena, behaviors, core needs, etc. through data comparison among tens of millions of users, and form a user portrait of the product.
Second, how to make the design closer to the mental model
How to make the design closer to the mental model, there are three main aspects:
- Match the user's mind: understand the user's mind, and use the model that the user is most familiar with to design, so as to reduce the cost of product understanding and learning Xi.
- Establish a new mind: When encountering new scenarios and new functions, it is necessary to use certain design methods to establish a new mind for users.
- Utilize the mind: Designers need to use the user's existing mind to serve the product.
1. Match the user's mind
Matching the user's mental model is the first step in improving the user experience, and when the design solution is consistent with the user's mental model, users can easily transfer their existing experience from one product to another without additional understanding and Xi costs.
The most common way to match the user's mind is to match with the real physics, we look at the style of the real switch in the design drawing and the switch in the UI component, as well as the style of the red envelope whether they are very similar, many designs in the product design are matched with real life, and the user can quickly understand and learn to use, so that the user's cognitive cost is very low.
In e-commerce, red envelopes, coupons and other styles are applied to the real red envelope shape, and designers are there
On the basis of red envelopes, visual optimization has been made, which not only reduces the cost of user cognition, but also improves the attractiveness of the activity to users, thereby bringing more clicks and conversions.
The calendar component is also a good example, the basic style of the calendar component is derived from the real desk calendar style, but the design also adds business attributes, such as the calendar's selectable date design, reservation, non-reservation and other style expressions. The calendar component not only maintains the user's cognition of the desk calendar, but also expands the business needs, achieving an effective combination of user cognition and business needs.
Of course, matching the user's mind is not a complete copy of the physical world, but also through in-depth observation and thinking, to do some interesting experience design.
2. Build a new mind
We have introduced the matching of the user's mind, but we will encounter a variety of new scenarios and new functions in the design work, which cannot fully match the user's existing cognition, so we need to establish the user's new mind with the help of certain design methods, mainly including the following three design forms:
- Mental implantation: generally used for corporate value transmission, brand promotion, etc
- Mental guidance: It is commonly used in products to allow users to quickly establish new minds through guidance
- Behavior development: Adopt the form of "timed play" or games to create new user minds
1) Mind-Wisdom Implantation
For example, our upgraded company vision is to let every company have a happy workplace, let every family have an exclusive doctor, and let every user have a safe and healthy environment. This kind of value transmission is very suitable for mental implantation, forming a common cognition of users, thereby enhancing the trust of the platform.
The creation of the core services of the product, such as the family doctor through the slogan "open to enjoy unlimited free consultation", has established the consultation mind of the family doctor, and used [disease consultation], [medication consultation], [report interpretation], [chronic disease management] and other symbolic rights and interests of the family doctor, so as to reduce the user's decision-making cost, and form a benefit memory point, and improve the user's purchase conversion rate.
2) Mental guidance
Of course, there are some new features in product design that cannot match the user's mind, or when the user's existing mind is changed, it is necessary to guide the user to quickly establish a new mind. For example, common beginner guides, function entry prompts, and function adjustment instructions.
However, when the mind is guided, it is as simple and direct as possible, so that the user can quickly understand, and if there is a complex function, it can be guided step by step in the form of a process, so as to reduce the user's understanding and learning Xi cost.
3) Behavior cultivates the mind
However, in some strong operation products, it is necessary to cultivate user Xi, such as our step-by-step gold, red packet sign-in, menstrual period, etc., such products use "timed gameplay" to build user minds. For example, [Step by Step to Win Gold] can receive health money by walking every day, and [Sign-in Red Envelope] can receive red envelopes when you sign in, solidifying the user's mental model through "behavioral stimulation" day after day.
3. Use your mind
Designers should not only serve users, but also consider the realization of business value. Therefore, in some scenarios, designers need to use their existing minds to serve the product.
For example, pop-ups can better attract users' attention, and users have two main actions for pop-ups, either close or click. Based on this mentality, some App startup ads use pop-up windows to attract users to click.
In addition, as an important source of income for Internet platforms, advertisements need to consider the delivery effect, so most of the advertisements are soft implanted, which is consistent with the actual content as much as possible in form, so as to guide users to browse and click with the help of existing minds
III. Conclusion
The application of psychological principles in design not only enhances the usefulness and attractiveness of the product, but also deepens the emotional connection between the user and the product. As designers, we should continue to explore and practice to create products that truly meet the needs and expectations of users. By deeply understanding the psychology and behavior of users, we can design products that are more human, intuitive, and emotionally rich.
This article was originally published by @唐小白 on Everyone is a Product Manager and is not allowed to be reproduced without permission
The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0.
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