Zeigarnik Effect. Is LinkedIn using a Dark design pattern?
How UX Designers make their users complete a task?
Hi! How are you doing today? It seems you had a great day so far and it would turn to be even greater day now that you are reading my words. (Heights of narcissism š)
So, you are excited now and want to read further. You want to go in detail about the Zeigarnik effect. And you wonāt stop for anything less. Great!
But what if I ask you to stop reading this article right now?
What if I ask you to take a break right now?
If you do so, you will experience what we call the Zeigarnik effect. (But I know you are too stubborn to do that right now š )
So letās try to recall a few incidents from the past.
Would you just leave watching an action-packed movie in between? How did you feel when you were interrupted? ā Anxiety.
Do you remember when you were playing a mobile game with your friends and your battery just died?
Letās talk more about it. Letās see how the Zeigarnik Effect does the magic.
Whoās the man behind Zegarnik Effect?
Iām really sorry! I think I should be wise enough with my words.
Not every law is given by a man. And Iām glad that Bluma Zeigarnik broke this stereotype at the beginning of the last century itself. She was a Soviet psychologist and psychiatrist and conducted various studies on memory.
She began studying the relationship between memory and incomplete tasks in the 1920s after her professor noticed a pattern among waiters.
These waiters had better recollections of still unpaid orders. However, after the completion of the task, after everyone had paid, they were unable to remember any more details of the orders!
Zeigarnikās initial findings revealed that participants were able to recall details of interrupted tasks around 90% better than those that they had been able to complete undisturbed.
āPeople remember interrupted or incomplete tasks or events more easily than tasks that have been completedā ā Zeigarnik Effect
And this is how the Zeigarnik Effect came into existence! Since 1927, it has been replicated and studied by many psychologists.
Remember Game of Thrones?
The Zeigarnik Effect is based on the idea that it is human nature to finish what we start and, if we donāt finish something, we experience dissonance, resulting in an uncomfortable feeling.
You must have observed this in various tv series, how they end that episode. I hate it! Playing with our emotions isnāt fair!
When the mystery is about to be unfolded, they show us ā The End! But itās not the end. And we have to wait for eternity for another episode.
Remember how we talked about all the episodes of Game of Thrones as if it was our Bible. It was a hot potato and people couldnāt stop speculating what could possibly happen next. Why? (Worst ending ever)
How do we remember all of these details? And why do we crave to finish what we started?
The answer lies in the Zeignarnik Effect!
How to use the Zeigarnik Effect in UX?
This must not be that difficult to comprehend now as you have already learned the basics and nothing beats the story itself. I would try to explain the magic of the Zeigarnik Effect using examples so that you can see it in action.
Linkedin is quite famous for using this technique. Instead of presenting the users with an overwhelming and long list of questions, it merely asked to sign up first, and then later collected information is a super smart way.
But what made the users write that much information after a sign-up?
Is it the progress bar broken into stages?
Or is it the incomplete status of the account? (75% complete)
Medium
Yes! The platform on which you are reading this article itself is using this technique. Donāt believe me? Just watch!
The medium doesnāt stop anyone from opening the star article. But what if you are not a member? It lets you read a few lines and as you get into the momentum of reading, you see this!
Amazon
When you open a new webpage and the internet speed sucks, donāt these progress bar makes you stay on the page?
Iām sure that most of you will exit the page in the absence of a progress bar or a loader. Try it!
Amazon too has been leveraging this technique. It breaks down the entire transaction into stages that motivate the user to complete a transaction.
Itās late in the night here and Iām still writing this article. Why? Because I started writing this article today morning and I canāt sleep without completing it. ā Zeigarnik Effect in action!
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UX Crash Course: Chapter 1
