Evolutionary Psychology &UX

Laura Gordon & Hazel Bolton

@LauraGordonComm & @hazelana_b

Laura Gordon

Hazel Bolton

Content Manager @ Formisimo

What’s in it for you?

QI UX facts and discussion ● Improved knowledge in your field● Entertainment??Understanding of how we think: goals, motivations and expectations.● Adds to experience and gut feelings ● Improves your ability to design ● Be an advocate your design decisions

Survive

Reproduce

Pass on DNA

We’re just one branch of the tree

Our end of the tree...

Complex brains 86 billion nerve cellsEvolution actingon it’s formation

“Although one might think that evolution has little to do with modern consumer behaviour, a closer inspection of our ancestral roots can provide much insight into why we buy.

An evolutionary perspective suggests that we interact with our present-day world using brains that evolved to solve a recurring set of ancestral challenges. Accordingly, a growing body of research suggests that a set of evolutionary social motives continues to influence much modern behaviour, albeit not always in obvious or conscious ways.

These motives include making friends, gaining status, attracting a mate, keeping a mate, protecting ourselves from danger, and caring for offspring.”Inherited instincts from our ancestors?Applied Evolutionary Psychology, Why we buy: evolution, marketing, and consumer behaviour, Griskevicius et al. 2012

Basal Ganglia - Instinct

Simple survival behaviours and quick decision-making are controlled from here.

Fight that lion or run away?

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/psychology-tips-ux-11135216

Limbic - Emotional

Associates behaviors and memories with positive and negative experiences

Emotionally effective designs = great results

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/psychology-tips-ux-11135216

Neocortex - Thinking

Cognition - thinkingUseful but costly15-10% of total energy used(causes drop offs from websites) For cooperation and competitionMust see high value to warrant usinghttp://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/psychology-tips-ux-11135216

UX linked to survival and DNA

Business, society all evolved to ensure survival species and their DNA

Why are you here tonight?

Is a career now is part our survival strategy??

Quick poll

Stairs or escalators?only 3% chose the stairsLazy or smart for survival?

Hunting and gathering was energy-intensive, and short breaks of inactivity offered the rare chance to save hard-earned calories.http://www.livescience.com/41146-cavemen-choices.html

Walking meetings!!

"We evolved to walk, run, climb, dig and throw,"

Lieberman said.

"That's how hunter-gatherers got their dinner every

day."

Walking keeps humans healthy by stimulating blood

flow and flushing oxygen through the body.

But today, modern civilization thrives largely on

long-term sitting, to the detriment of physical and

mental health.http://www.livescience.com/41146-cavemen-choices.html

QI - use of language in business

and in life…e.g. fights, competition, dominate, growth, sustainability, adaptability

Business is an ecosystem - within it your own habitat which has it’s own selection pressures and shaping forces

UX, Evolution & Selection Pressures

Business will only do if they have to - Lazy and less energy outputStrong selection pressure competition (resources) gives us energy (cash/time) to respond - fear for survival. CX, and therefore UX, ways of ensuring survival for ourselves and business.

Why CX and UX are hot

“Companies that have to fight for customers can’t afford to ignore customer experience.

New healthcare laws started a battle for health insurance customers, especially the younger, healthier customers who pay more in premiums than they get back in claims"

Social proof

Social beings > survival based on being accepted by peers working together.Trends spread to share information safety/knowledge/social learningCollectivism prevents social ostracisation and ultimately death Any examples of Social Proof in UX?

Facebook - why do we use it?

Easy social status builder - one core motivator - status - only post what gets liked

Discussions about how bad it is e.g. Facebook invading privacy

Still takes a lot of energy/bravery to resist

Evolutionary Psychology and UX

Important part of social and therefore business relationships

Trust: believing that the other party will behave in cooperative and non-exploitative ways.

Trust implies RISK - Gain trust by...

1. Exhibiting honesty and kindness - matched vulnerability will make the user/customer less nervous (CX)

2. Adopting trustworthy practices (trust seals)3. Borrowing the credibility of others (Social

proof) go with group collective decisions

Exhibiting honesty, kindness, vulnerability and genuine care elicits trust but is scary

People built in lie detectors and know truth

People respond in kind and more forgivingTreat the 99% of people with trust before they give you reason not toe.g. Airport security endures feelings of anxiety and negative user perception

Forms - Breaking the Trust

CAPTCHAs

Major cause of drop-offsOnly ⅓ of users complete a CAPTCHA correctly first timeUndermines trust between you and user

Be careful what you ask..

Do you really need to know that?

Questions like Phone Number, DOB, Address

If users aren’t primed they may not be ready to give certain information

Case Study

Trends - Personalisation

Tailoring content to the life stage of your customer

Why is it trending now? - The aim is to provide a better Customer Experience as a competitive edge

Does it work?

Presents more relevant content to the user, saving them time and positioning you as a valuable resource

Potential to identify an Emotional motivator

Hubspot - Delivering good CX

Same questions never asked twice - individual user journeys

Different levels of content shown based on the user’s knowledge & experience of us.

What do you guys use?

Trend - Flat UI vs Skeuomorphic

Flat = clean, crisp, minimalist, colour blocks

Skeuomorphism = textured, realistic-looking design

QI

Anyone got an example of an out-dated skeuomorphic design?

Why are Radio Buttons so called?

Radio buttons - mechanical buttons of an analog radio where the buttons had to be physically pushed in.

Trend - Hamburger menus

Visual design- where does it fall?Easy to recognise, right?

What we expect from our forms/checkout - improvements

● Mobile compatibility ● Add card details to a form on my mobile by

scanning the card with my camera● Postcode lookup (add address manually as well)● Collapsed sections - view if applicable - lower

cognitive load● Summarised orders in the checkout - double

check● Genuinely useful error messages such as

'Cannot detect card type' not ‘error’

Track 26 different metricsGather insightful and objective data that is analysed and displayed in the best way possible to allow you to identify the pain points and barriers preventing your customers from converting.

How is Formisimo used? ● Fix and tweak existing form ● Measure success of overhauls/redesigns● Monitoring ● Early warning of problems

Secret EscapesFound that their phone number and credit card fields did not accept spaces. Added the functionality to allow this, and saw corrections per user drop by 37.5%.

Borrow my doggySaw a very high drop off rate for their date of birth fields in their registration process. Changed the date of birth fields to simply ‘Confirm you are over 18’ - abandonment of their registration process dropped 31%.

Power of data

Sample data - Free two trial of Formisimo if anyone is interested in seeing the reporting and data available

Psy - UX - discussion points

Eye tracking communicates information we don’t know ourselvesMate attractiveness studies what could we learn about attractiveness of designControl groups in UXHard data

QI

Anyone got any related topics to bring up for discussion with the group?