How cognitive biases influence user’s decisions

We build a 52 cards deck to present cognitive biases.
These cards were created for teaching purposes. They help team members become aware of their own biases and the different biases they can induce, whether on purpose or not, to users.
They can also be used as a cheat sheet and as “reminder cards” while designing. You can use them in small workshops with your coworkers to raise awareness among your team.
The print cards: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/52-ux-cards-to-discover-cognitive-biases/
The Miro board: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lTAfbaE=/?moveToWidget=3074457354758140100&cot=14

Contact us if you want us to present the cards and the workshop at your event :) (mail on the last slide)

Transcript

1. How cognitive biases influence user’s decisions UX in LUX @ UXGA 2021
2. Welcome to the webinar! We are UX designers and we (usually) propose UX workshops in Luxembourg!
3. 🦄
4. What’s the plan? 1. What are cognitive biases? 2. It’s scary, so we created some cards 3. Going further... Schedule 🦄
5. What are cognitive biases? 01
7. Ok, thank you for coming, enjoy your weekend :D
8. Cognitive biases are psychological tendencies that cause the human brain to draw incorrect conclusions. For better or worse, we can use them in many different ways to influence user behavior on your websites and apps. Definition
9. 🦄
10. “ IF I don’t book now, there will not be any room left for me 😱 (Scarcity + loss aversion) 🦄
11. “Other people booked it, maybe I should book it too” (Bandwagon effect) 🦄
12. As designers (and as customers), it’s also interesting to be aware of such biases. For instance, some of them might influence your user research without you even knowing it. Definition
13. A 52 cognitive biases card deck 02
15. A 52 cards deck you can print and use An online webapp list to help you inpx.it/52-cards inpx.it/cobias-webapp
16. A few examples 01 🦄
17. Decision-making & behavior These biases affect people's decision-making abilities, behaviour and the decisions they make based on the different information they get. 🦄
18. Anchoring The tendency for people to depend too heavily on an initial piece of information offered (considered to be the "anchor") when making decisions. Those objects near the anchor tend to be assimilated toward it and those further away tend to be displaced in the other direction.
20. IKEA Effect The tendency for people to place a disproportionately high value on objects that they partially assembled themselves, such as furniture from IKEA, regardless of the quality of the end product. 🦄
21. Thinking & problem solving These biases can change the way people think or solve problems and lead them to come up with wrong conclusions.
22. Fear of Missing out The fear experienced by individuals when faced with the thought that they might miss out on a social occasion, a new experience, a profitable investment or a satisfying event. This social anxiety is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing.
24. Bandwagon effect The tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people already do (or believe) the same. The bandwagon effect is characterized by the probability of individual adoption increasing with respect to the proportion who have already done so. 🦄
25. Bandwagon effect 🦄
26. Memories & recalling These biases can influence choices by either enhancing or impairing the recall of a memory or altering the content of a reported memory. 🦄
27. Primacy effect Items near the end of a sequence are the easiest to recall, followed by the items at the beginning of a sequence; items in the middle are the least likely to be remembered.
28. Bizarreness effect Bizarre material is better remembered than common material. 🦄
29. Interview & user testing These biases can directly influence designer, during interviews or user testing, and may change the outcome of our research. They influence the behaviour of people we interview or people who will test your products and services.
30. Courtesy bias The tendency to give an opinion that is more socially correct than one's true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone.
31. Negativity bias Psychological phenomenon by which humans have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories.
32. Team work, social & meetings These biases can change the way groups of people work collectively and interact with each other, whether in a meeting room or in their daily lives in general. 🦄
33. "Not invented here" NIH Aversion to contact with or use of already existing products, research, standards, or knowledge developed outside a group because of their external origins and costs, such as royalties. Research illustrates a strong bias against ideas from the outside.
34. Reactance The urge to do the opposite of what someone wants people to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain their freedom of choice or limit their range of alternatives. 🦄
35. How to use the cards? 02
36. These cards were created for teaching purposes. They help team members become aware of their own biases and the different biases they can induce, whether on purpose or not, to users. They can also be used as a cheat sheet and as “reminder cards” while designing. You can use them in small workshops with your coworkers to raise awareness among your team. The goal
37. Step 0 - Download the cards and cut them > inpx.it/52-cards 🦄
38. Step 1 - Discover and recall 1. Discovery Distribute the cards to groups (or individuals). Ask the people in the group to work together to recall examples of projects, interfaces or work related situations where they might have faced those biases. Before they start, remind them that they will need to pick 2 to present and pick a presenter. (10 minutes) 🦄
39. Step 1 - Discover and recall 2. Sharing Each group presents 1 or 2 of the biases with an example to all participants in the workshop. At the end of the sharing session, depending on how many groups, people “know” at least 10 biases. (2-3 minutes per group) 🦄
41. Step 2 - Build an experience 1. Let’s be evil! The people in the group (or individuals) will now imagine the most manipulative experience possible. They need to use as many biases as possible: those from the cards, those they already know. You can ask them to build an interface, but also a non-digital experience, or even make an advertisement, a TV spot, etc. Before they start, remind them that they will need to pick a presenter to present the evil experience (15/20 minutes)
42. Step 2 - Build an experience 2. Sharing Each group then presents their own evil experience by listing the different biases used. Count the points and discover which group is the most evil and manipulative! (2-3 minutes per group)
44. What about remote workshops? 🦊 • A conference tool with voice, a chat and breakout rooms to split people into groups. • A board tool (like Miro or mural) with the cards on it. • Icebreaker to help people get comfortable with remote tools.
46. Going further... 03
47. Ethics So, good or evil, what you create and build is your responsibility and your choice. Would you use some of those in a project?
48. Check your biases Some of those might influence your user interviews and user testing - Confirmation bias - Framing effect - Social Desirability bias - etc. → 10 cognitive biases to avoid in User Research (and how to avoid them) 🦄
50. 🦄
51. 🦄
52. • Cognitive Bias Cards For Learning Practitioners (to learn about bias) • Cognitive Bias Cards • Wikipedia list of cognitive biases • Online quizz tool with biases cards • CognitiveBiasCards • Bias Cards by UX Psychologists (to avoid designer bias) • List of cognitive biases • https:/ /growth.design/psychology/ Some cards / lists
53. • Psychology for Designers Joe Leech • 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Susan Weinschenk • 100 MORE Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Some books
54. Thank you :) Contact us if you ever are in Luxembourg or remote and want to present a workshop or share a UX method! @ux_lux on twitter - uxinlux@gmail.com