Clinging to the familiar
A friend of mine recently told me about how she had started watching the American sitcom ‘Friends’ for the 8th time again. I took the liberty of doing the math — The whole sitcom comprises of 10 seasons, each season with an average of 22 episodes, each episode lasting for around 23 minutes. That is approximately 85 hours of screen time. 85 HOURS!!
10ish days that she could have spent bingeing on a brand-new show instead. So why watch the same thing over and over again?
The human brain is wired to perform actions that bring it joy. Its natural reflex against a foreign stimulus is avoid it and shield itself. This is can also be explained by the concept of the Known-Unknown. Anything that is known and familiar to the mind is the space where we find comfort.
The unknown is what makes us put our guards up. When put in a situation that is unfamiliar, the human instinct is to avoid it at first. If unavoidable, we tend to tread carefully while trying to find our way through the situation.
This is the reason most people have favourites. We tend to stick to what is tried and tested, be it with food at a particular restaurant, the same playlist since high school, or even with our jobs and careers. Even though it is said that ‘Change is the only constant’, most people are extremely averse to it.
The concept of Hoarding is literally about clinging to the familiar. People hold on to memoirs, personal items, even RECEIPTS because they might have a certain memory or even nostalgia associated to it which they don’t want to let go of. The thought of even swapping something for a newer version brings about unsolicited stress
Another example of familiarity can be seen in franchises. Be it books like Harry Potter or movies from the Marvel universe; when studios realise that their audiences are responding well to some character in particular, they sell the heck out of it. JK Rowling still makes a bucket load of money by writing spin offs after spin offs of various Harry Potter characters. And the audiences eat it up. Even after 22 years of its release, her books and plays sell like hot cakes. The reason behind this is that audiences across the world have invested so much time in these fictional characters, they would rather continue learning more intricate details about the same universe than start the process from scratch for something new.
So, what can we as designers do to leverage this need for humans to cling to the familiar –
1. Exploit what works
More often than not, designers are extremely averse to using a design structure that they might have seen before. The need to think and build something out of the box always casts a shadow on our thoughts while designing.
We often forget that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel every single time. We need to put our users ahead of our egos.
Using a widely recognised design pattern has several advantages. When presented with a construct that users recognise, they face no hesitation moving forward. They are able to find their way around the system with absolute ease, which makes the flow seamless.
It is easier for users to put their trust into something they have seen before.
When presented with an interface that varies from what is expected, users take a certain amount of time to get accustomed to it before they can even start with their journey. In such a situation, even the smallest inconvenience can result in an increase in drop rates.
2. Be consistent
The concept of familiarity can be related very closely to consistency. To allow the user feel a sense of familiarity within an application, it is very important for the application to be holistically consistent.
When guiding the user through their intended journey, it is essential that the experience doesn’t break at any point. If the UI or behaviour of a certain component differs between two different flows, there is an immediate feeling of unfamiliarity which could make the user feel out of place or uncomfortable.
As designers, not only is it necessary to establish comfort on the landing page, it is also essential to make sure that when there is a switch between journeys, the transition is seamless.
It is also important to maintain consistency when moving viewports. This means that when a user is moving from using an application on their desktop to using it on their mobile device, they should be able to navigate without facing inconvenience. The ‘Mobile-First’ approach was devised to tackle this exact problem. Designers can also plan their navigation well in advance with the aim of bring all the responsive and native platforms consistent before diving deep into the UI screens.
3. Test and test and test
As designers, we thrive on creativity and innovation. We are constantly on the lookout to design something new and better; something that would reimagine the simplest of actions. And that is exactly how we have progressed from clicks to taps to gestures; from black and white Snake to augmented reality Pokemon Go; and from MySpace to Facebook and Instagram.
Exploiting what works does by no means translate to never exploring while designing.
When introducing something new to their users, designers need to make sure it is received well. Any new feature on an application needs to be aligned and consistent with the rest of the experience. Introducing a complicated gesture in an application that is tap-only might put the user out of their comfort zone. Hence, it is absolutely essential that anything new that is being introduced be tested repeatedly with target users before being released.
