Module 2: Understanding the User's Mind

Psychology and Behavior

Learning objective: At the end of this module, you will be able to explain how cognitive processes (especially the dual system of thinking) influence user behavior, and apply scientific thinking to avoid biases in research.

Estimated time: 2 hours

User Experience Research (UXR) is based on the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. Understanding human psychology is fundamental to designing effective, usable, and meaningful digital experiences.

2.1. Applied Psychology in UX: Avoiding Common Sense

What is Scientific Thinking in UX?

The scientific method in UX Research is a set of tools that help researchers and designers avoid falling into the trap of their own biases.

Applied scientific thinking involves:

Generate hypotheses: Based on experience and common sense (which is limited for demonstration).
Validate or refute them: By collecting rigorous and objective data.
Avoid personal design: Common sense often leads designers to design for themselves, making incorrect assumptions about users' skills or knowledge.

Design Thinking begins with the ability to detect and pose a poorly defined problem. UXR is essential for refining that problem and understanding what the user thinks, feels, and needs.

The Risk of Common Sense

Relying on intuition or assumptions can lead to:

Usability Barriers: Creating products with flaws that weren't anticipated.
Discrimination: Products that exclude users with different abilities or contexts.
Development Costs: Spending resources on functionalities users don't need.

2.2. Kahneman's Dual System Theory

One of the most important contributions to understanding human behavior comes from the work of psychologist Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 2002. In his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011), Kahneman presents the Dual System Theory, which explains how we process information and make decisions.

The Two Thinking Systems

According to Kahneman, our mind operates with two distinct systems:

System	Characteristics	In UX it manifests as...
System 1 (Fast Thinking)	Automatic, intuitive, effortless, emotional, operates constantly	First impressions of an interface, recognition of familiar patterns, emotional reactions to design
System 2 (Slow Thinking)	Deliberate, analytical, requires effort, logical, activates when necessary	Reading complex instructions, comparing options, completing long forms, learning a new interface

Implications for UX Design

System 1 dominates most of our digital interactions. Users don't read all the content on a page; they scan looking for recognizable patterns and make quick decisions based on heuristics (mental shortcuts).

This means that:

First impressions matter enormously. Lindgaard et al.'s study (2006) demonstrated that users form judgments about a website's visual appeal in just 50 milliseconds.
The Aesthetic-Usability Effect is real. People tend to perceive aesthetically pleasing designs as more usable, even when they objectively aren't. System 1 generates this automatic association.
Reducing cognitive load is essential. When we unnecessarily force users to activate System 2 (with confusing interfaces, long texts, excessive options), we generate frustration and abandonment.

Heuristics and Cognitive Biases

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts or general rules that people use to simplify decisions. While they increase efficiency, they can also lead to systematic errors called cognitive biases.

Kahneman and his collaborator Amos Tversky identified several fundamental heuristics:

Availability Heuristic: People judge the probability of something based on how easy it is to recall examples. If they recently saw news about bank fraud, they'll perceive online transactions as riskier.

Application in UX: Recent error messages affect the perception of system reliability. A single failure can color the entire experience.

Representativeness Heuristic: People categorize based on how similar something is to a mental prototype. If a payment page doesn't "look" like the payment pages they know, they'll distrust it.

Application in UX: Respecting established design conventions reduces cognitive friction.

Anchoring: The first information we receive disproportionately influences our subsequent judgments.

Application in UX: The initial price shown (even if crossed out) anchors the perception of an offer's value.

The Concept of Priming

Priming occurs when exposure to a previous stimulus influences the processing of subsequent information, without us being aware of it.

In UX, priming is used to:

Establish expectations before a task
Guide attention to specific elements
Emotionally prepare the user for certain content

Example: Showing images of smiling people before a satisfaction survey can positively influence responses.

2.3. Emotion and Motivation in Design

Interaction design must ensure active engagement from users, which requires addressing emotional and motivational aspects.

The role of emotion in usability

Donald Norman, in "Emotional Design" (2004), proposes three levels of design processing:

Visceral Level: Automatic and immediate reactions (System 1). Design must be attractive.
Behavioral Level: The experience of use. Design must be functional and usable.
Reflective Level: Personal meaning and the image it projects. Design must be meaningful.

Aesthetic appeal fosters positive attitudes and makes people more tolerant of usability problems. This doesn't justify ignoring usability, but it does demonstrate the importance of aesthetics.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

To encourage participation and task completion, it's crucial to understand motivation:

Intrinsic Motivation: The user acts for personal satisfaction, curiosity, or genuine interest.
Extrinsic Motivation: The user acts for external rewards (discounts, points, recognition).

Research demonstrates that people are more motivated by intrinsic rewards than extrinsic ones. Designing experiences that generate the state of "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) is intrinsically rewarding.

Persuasive Communication and UX Writing

UX Writing is the process of creating the words of the user experience: titles, buttons, labels, instructions, descriptions, and notifications.

Texts should make users feel confident to execute the next action. Small changes in wording and presentation have a significant influence on behavior.

Principles of effective UX Writing:

Clear and simple language
Avoid technical jargon
Anticipate user questions
Guide without being condescending

Step by Step: Identifying Biases in Your Research

Before researching: Write down your hypotheses and assumptions about users. Be honest about what you "think you know".
During research: Avoid questions that confirm your hypotheses. Ask open and neutral questions.
In analysis: Actively look for evidence that contradicts your initial hypotheses. What data did you ignore?
When communicating: Distinguish between what the data says and your interpretation of it.

Practical Exercise - Module 2

Identifying System 1 and System 2:

Visit an e-commerce website you don't know. For 30 seconds, browse freely and note:

What elements caught your attention immediately? (System 1)
Where did you have to stop to think or read carefully? (System 2)
What emotions did you experience?

Reflect: Did the design facilitate quick decisions or make them difficult?

Module 2 References

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Lindgaard, G., Fernandes, G., Dudek, C., & Brown, J. (2006). Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression! Behaviour & Information Technology, 25(2), 115-126.
Norman, D. (2004). Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124-1131.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.