How people decide

8 point primer for a peek into human psychology while making decisions

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

These 8 gems are extracted from the Book — 100 Things by Behavioral Psychologist , Susan Weinschenk.

Image by: Swati Sati

1. Key Takeaway for Product Design

1. In uncertainty, reviews, ratings and testimonials are the primary influencers while deciding to make a purchase decision.

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2. Key Takeaway for Product Design

As collaborative sessions are an important part of the design process, it helps to —

1. Have each member of the group write down ideas ahead of time and circulate those ideas before the meeting, during collaborative sessions, group meeting or group audience feedback sessions.

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3. Key Takeaway in Product Design

Building on the previous point , to avoid group indecision and fallacy—

1. Give people a way and time to consider all relevant information on their own before they see what other people think.
2. Ask people to rate how confident they are in their decision before they show that decision to others.
3. Once opinion sharing starts, making sure people have enough time to discuss their disagreements.

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People always want more choices, since information is addictive, it’s part of the dopamine effect.

Paradoxically, too many Choices Paralyze the Thought Process, and people actually take lesser concrete actions when presented with many choices.

4. Key Takeaway in Product Design

1. If possible, limit the number of choices to three or four — this enables quicker action.
2. Resist the impulse to provide customers with a large number of choices. If you have to offer more options, try to do so in a progressive way. For example, have people choose first from three or four options, and then choose again from a subset.

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5. Key Takeaway in Product Design

1. The best thing to do, of course, is to know your market or audience. If they’re influenced by prestige and possessions, then by all means mention money.
2. In case of time or budget limitation to know your audience well, and if you’re selling nonprestige items or services, then err on the side of time and experiences, and delay the mention of money as long as possible.
3. Be aware that most people, most of the time, are more influenced by time and experiences that produce a personal connection than money or possessions.

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6. Key Takeaway in Product Design

1. To design a product or Web site that persuades people to take a certain action, we need to know the unconscious motivations of your target audience.
2. When people tell their reasons for deciding to take a certain action, one has to be skeptical about what they say. Because decision making is unconscious, they may be unaware of the true reasons for their decisions.
3. Even though people make decisions based on unconscious factors, they want a rational, logical reason for the decisions they make. So you still need to provide the rational, logical reasons, even though they’re unlikely to be the actual reasons that people decided to take action.

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7. Key Takeaway in Product Design

1. Some people tend to make decisions intuitively, and others tend to make them in a deliberate way.
2. People will estimate a product to be of higher value if they can make the decision in their “natural” style.
3. If you can find out someone’s style, you can suggest to them how to make a decision and that will result in a higher estimation of the value of a product.
4. You can influence someone’s mood easily, for example, with a short video clip.
5. People in a good mood will rate a product as being more valuable if they are asked to make the decision quickly based on their first feelings.
6. People in a sad mood will rate a product as being more valuable if they are asked to make the decision in a more deliberate way.
7. If you influence people’s mood, then you can suggest to them how to think about their decision-making process.
8. This will result in a higher estimation of the value of a product or service.

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8. Key Takeaway in Product Design

1. People need to feel in control. Having “Options” provide that. (Caveat : Refer Key Takeaway #4)
2. While deciding how people will achieve a task, on your website or product — offer more than one way, even if the alternative methods are less efficient, just so that people will have a choice. E.g. providing several payment methods.
3. If a new version of your product includes improved methods for accomplishing tasks, you may want to leave some of the older methods in the product so that people feel they have options.