User Preference or Cognitive Bias?

Some user preferences are directly related to a cognitive bias.  With the advent of better internet search engines, people have developed a relatively new bias (or preference) known as the Google Bias.  How many times have you just told someone to “google it”?  The implications for sites and apps are to have high quality search engines, metadatas, and SEO.  Your navigation better be solid, too.  If users cannot find what they want, they leave.

Usually, they “google it” and jump to what the next site.

I have thought about writing a longer article on this topic, which I might do in the future.  I was shocked, happy, elated, and floored when I came across a submission to this year’s Big Design Conference from Ezra Englebardt and Timothy Parcell.  It is called “Your Customers are Stupid, But It’s Not Their Fault”.  In this talk, Ezra and Timothy will be talking about how user preferences can be cognitive biases.  I am really looking forward to this talk!

The Best Talk Coming to Big Design 2013

Here is the talk description that Ezra sent me last night:

They make choices we wish they didn’t. They make mistakes that we designed websites to avoid. And yet, they our customers still do stupid things sometimes. The question we need to ask is, Why?

The human brain is complex and amazing, yet often struggles with the simplest of fallacies. These fallacies or cognitive biases can range from assuming that because the roulette wheel has come up red 5 times in a row that black is “due,” (Gamblers Fallacy) or judging the value of an item based on the price of a similar item (Anchoring), we make choices every day based on faulty logic. As marketers, we need to understand and overcome/play into these fallacies in order to design experiences that change behavior.

This presentation will get into the root of these cognitive biases and how we can address them in our strategies, messages and designs.

What You Will Learn

– What are some common biases that affect consumer behavior?

– How have companies designed around/for these biases (and how can you)?

– How can you better identify what sort of pitfalls your customers will fall into?

– How Cognitive Biases can lead to the dreaded “user error?”

 

For me, this will be a sleeper hit for Big Design 2013.  I am really looking forward to this talk.

But, I may be biased!  <yes, pun intended>

Get your ticket today!