Making snap decisions or trusting your gut may sometimes seem like the best course of action. However, marketers and designers must also consider the impact of cognitive biases. These biases can subtly shape user behaviors and decisions online, influencing interactions more than we realize.

In this blog, we’ll highlight some of the most common biases and explain how to craft digital experiences that counteract cognitive biases, leading to more informed and rational user interaction.

What is Cognitive Bias?

Cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation away from typical or rational judgment. Cognitive bias works to simplify the information we receive and filter it through our personal experiences and preferences. While this generally helps us process information and make decisions quickly, it can also lead to errors.

For example, 35% of financial advisors saw recency bias affect their client’s decision-making between 2019 and 2020. Their decisions weren’t based on typical plans and processes but instead affected by recent news events or experiences.

When cognitive biases cloud human judgment, it affects how clearly we perceive situations, people, or potential risks. Another example of a cognitive bias that can affect designers, in particular, is confirmation bias.

If this type of bias occurs, a designer may receive positive feedback about the first version of a user interface they felt strongly about. However, that may cause them to ignore the negative feedback that could lead to them making the required changes to improve the user experience.

Cognitive Bias in UX and Why It Matters

Bias can impact every stage of the design process, from the research and analysis stages to the design and prototyping stages. However, UX designers need to be aware of cognitive biases because of the impact, both negative and positive, they can have on the user experience.

Negative Impact

Making Wrong Choices: Biases can influence designers to focus on the wrong problem without considering user needs or preferences. This can result in them choosing the wrong participants for a study or selecting the wrong layout for the new website.

Building Incorrect Products: Cognitive bias can lead designers to build the wrong product or prioritize the features that matter most to them instead of what matters to the target audience. So instead of adding the features that 80% of users wanted, they focus on a minor 10%, which could lead to negative feedback and a higher churn rate.

Positive Impact

Increased User Adoption: UX designers can incorporate cognitive biases when designing new products or user interfaces. For example, strategically using the framing effect when customers spend more time or money on a platform can gamify those actions and encourage greater user adoption.

Better User Engagement: Cognitive biases can influence user behavior toward certain actions, increasing engagement. For example, social media platforms highlight the most recent updates or events to encourage users to continuously scroll and keep refreshing to see if anything has changed.

Types of Cognitive Bias to Be Aware Of

There are over 180 types of cognitive bias that change the way we perceive information. When building user experiences, there are a handful of things that UX designers should be aware of to make the best decisions.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to favor information that confirms preexisting beliefs. Designers should be wary of this bias when interpreting feedback because they may be tempted to focus on the feedback that backs up previous assumptions.

On the other hand, confirmation bias can be used to reinforce the value of an experience. If users see positive feedback or success stories displayed prominently, they may be more inclined to use a product or service.

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias happens when we rely on the first piece of information encountered and use that when making consequent decisions. Designers fixated on a particular idea may not explore viable alternatives, reducing innovation.

However, in the context of the user, anchoring bias can be used to encourage more engagement and sales. For example, if the first price displayed is the most expensive choice, they may perceive other options presented as more reasonable.

The Framing Effect

The framing effect refers to how information is framed or presented to influence decisions. Information framed negatively may lead to designers and users avoiding that particular option.

For example, the number of options available for a popular competitor product can be framed as overwhelming or troublesome. On the other hand, framing a one-size-fits-all product as easy to use may make it more appealing.

Recency Bias

Consumers sometimes give more importance to recent news or information, a phenomenon known as recency bias. Recency bias may lead designers to focus too much on upcoming trends and veer away from what worked for them before. However, recency bias can be used correctly by swiftly providing product updates addressing recent user concerns.

Empathy Gap

The empathy gap occurs when the impact of emotions, biases, and other factors is underestimated, resulting in a lack of empathy. Given the importance of empathy in marketing and design, failure to consider the emotional aspects when building a user experience can result in a product not resonating with user needs. That said, designers who can tap into empathy when building and designing new products and experiences can help users feel understood and supported.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

If we have already invested time or money into a project, there is a tendency to want to continue with the project, even if there is no other rational reason to do so. That bias is known as the sunk cost fallacy.

In design, it leads to too much emotional attachment to existing work and makes designers reluctant to make changes or pivot, even if the feedback indicates they should. Designers are more likely to adapt based on user feedback and improve their flexibility when the sunk cost fallacy is applied correctly.

False Consensus Bias

Assuming that one’s opinions or preferences are more common than they are is known as the false consensus bias. Since designers may have a more thorough understanding of a product than their customers, it can lead to them making assumptions based on their preferences or understanding without taking into account what will resonate with the user base. Diverse input sources, such as surveys and other feedback-generating resources, are necessary to counteract this.

Social Desirability Bias

Social desirability bias refers to a tendency to engage in socially desirable behavior to win approval from peers or society. This bias may lead to user feedback that customers don’t fully believe but is based on what might be socially acceptable. To counteract this, it’s essential to use a combination of user feedback sources, such as behavioral analytics and observational studies, to better understand user behavior and preferences.

Building a UX Strategy for Effective Decision Making

Cognitive biases can harm the user experience and force companies to make the wrong decisions when building new experiences. On the other hand, when used correctly, it can have the opposite effect and influence potential users to increase engagement with the brand, leading to increased customer loyalty and word of mouth.

Content Bloom offers the ideal UX design services that can help businesses avoid the wrong kind of cognitive bias. We can also help create UX designs and digital strategies to appeal to customers instead.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you avoid bias in designing a user experience.