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UX Crash Course: User Psychology

thehipperelement.com

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Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#11

Post by dovel »

tommi wrote: post #7
JoelMarsh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

> Also, it should NEVER be difficult to cancel. Just time consuming. And to be super clear "time consuming" to me is about 5 minutes. As a user, I hate you for that.

I agree with this sentiment.

Here's some UX for you - the user owes you nothing.

Sure have an optional form or field for cancellations but 5 minutes? How is this beneficial for anyone?

So, it's a free product - they will just never cancel their account and you will have inactive users sitting there. Who is this good for?

So it's a paid product - they will cancel their account and tell everyone about the ridiculously long winded process they had to go through to cancel it.

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#12

Post by dovel »

JoelMarsh wrote: post #5
JonoBB wrote: post #4

I'm really not quite sure what to make of this advice: http://thehipperelement.com/post/86991518680/daily-ux-crash-... > If your marketing department wants to know anything about why the user is cancelling, put it in the form. Two pages of boring questions is a great way to reduce conversion. > Break the form into many pages so it takes longer. Include links to FAQ pages. And avoid using defaults; it maximizes the nu…

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

The post you had here before you edited was completely nonsensical.

A UX post, on how a site should prevent users from cancelling to benefit the website, at the expense of the user.

That is the opposite of a good UX.

Here is some 'User pseudo-psychology' for you... Having your blog titles take up more than half the vertical space of my browser (when it is full screen) stops me reading your writing.

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#13

Post by userbinator »

Aardwolf wrote: post #3

My psychology is unfortunately different than most users, which means UI's suck for me nowadays. I want more information on screen, more settings, more logic. The UI trend however seems to be less information on screen, less settings, and more "The UI knows better what you want than you do" :(

Can't agree more, but it could be a cultural thing too - see all the discussion around Western vs East Asian web/UI design, for example. So your psychology might actually be the norm for an Asian user, if by "most users" you mean the West.

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#14

Post by nakovet »

tommi wrote: post #7
JoelMarsh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

> Also, it should NEVER be difficult to cancel. Just time consuming. And to be super clear "time consuming" to me is about 5 minutes. As a user, I hate you for that.

Indeed. I cancelled Netflix 3 times, and look who's back paying for their content!? Me!

Not the main reason, but because it's easy to cancel it, I don't worry about signing back (counter-example: gym subscription).

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#15

Post by Arnor »

JoelMarsh wrote: post #5
JonoBB wrote: post #4

I'm really not quite sure what to make of this advice: http://thehipperelement.com/post/86991518680/daily-ux-crash-... > If your marketing department wants to know anything about why the user is cancelling, put it in the form. Two pages of boring questions is a great way to reduce conversion. > Break the form into many pages so it takes longer. Include links to FAQ pages. And avoid using defaults; it maximizes the nu…

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

I'm glad I checked the comments to see if this was worth my time... question answered.

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#16

Post by brianjoseff »

Hey Joel- great stuff. Can you post your sources? For example, in the Cognitive Bias Lesson in the Decoy section, where did you get this factoid: "even though nobody chooses [the decoy], if you remove it, about 60% of people will choose the cheapest option instead.". Thanks for assembling these lessons!

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#17

Post by fat0wl »

Arnor wrote: post #15
JoelMarsh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

I'm glad I checked the comments to see if this was worth my time... question answered.

ha yea i read the first few sections & they were so hollow i had to come check the comments too -- good UX is not putting a bunch of filler in your opening 10 paragraphs. Only thing thats been said so far is that "3-click rule" that my 900 year-old boss spews to management after raving to me about how much he loves the Mac philosophy.

XD

In all seriousness, would love to see a guide from the more scientifcally-researched vein of this type of work.

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#18

Post by fat0wl »

I did end up skimming a few more sections to see if it picked up & it was still all hollow, common sense stuff eventually descending into predatory gamification/addiction tactics. I know there are a lot of burgeoning startup types on here but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE understand that responsible developers should strive to make a product that serves a real need for users. I want to make software that retains customers through convenience, features, value.

This guide reads more like those old guides for how to use SEO to drive traffic to your dung-heap. I don't know how others feel but I want to create a good experience for my users, not convince the masses that they are my users so I can go to some freemium lowest-common-denominator model.

Is web dev the wrong place for me or are we just in a bubble phase for these people who try to use their "clever interfaces" to regress humans to some animal state? (If you look at the chapter headers in this guide I don't think I'm out of line... its literally about addiction, sex, etc.)

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#19

Post by Aardwolf »

userbinator wrote: post #13
Aardwolf wrote: post #3

My psychology is unfortunately different than most users, which means UI's suck for me nowadays. I want more information on screen, more settings, more logic. The UI trend however seems to be less information on screen, less settings, and more "The UI knows better what you want than you do" :(

Can't agree more, but it could be a cultural thing too - see all the discussion around Western vs East Asian web/UI design, for example. So your psychology might actually be the norm for an Asian user, if by "most users" you mean the West.

Well, I'm not Asian so I don't know. I'm a programmer tho. So for me things should be logical and controllable in orthogonal ways, and if there is lots of information display it in ways designed for maximum efficiency of absorbing information (good controllable aggregations, good use of the visual system and screen real estate, fast scrolling, ...).

Re: UX Crash Course: User Psychology

#20

Post by Aardwolf »

tommi wrote: post #8
Aardwolf wrote: post #3

My psychology is unfortunately different than most users, which means UI's suck for me nowadays. I want more information on screen, more settings, more logic. The UI trend however seems to be less information on screen, less settings, and more "The UI knows better what you want than you do" :(

Can you give an example of an case where you want more settings instead of more suitable UI for your needs?

Sure. Allowing to set ranges yourself rather than infinite scrolling that makes it impossible to go back to number X. A setting to always show little icons instead of only when the mouse hovers over it. Settings to organize lots of data the way you want. Settings to let a single mouse click on a bookmark star put it in the place you want rather than some place where you don't want it. Settings to always expand all content in a thread rather than showing things collapsed first so that you need to open each individually. Settings to put the refresh button next to the forward and back button. A setting to have multiple rows of taskbars in your favorite Linux desktop env. Settings to fix anything that's annoying and designed for less knowledgeable users or users with small screens basically.
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