Nudging Users’ Choices with Behavioural Design

Why should I care?

Products are shaped by users' choices, from the moment they decide to try a new mobile application in the App Store or complete a sign-up form, to keeping their subscription active for years afterward.

As product managers, we design these choices. We select the button colours and screen layouts, crafting intentional interactions.

Are these interactions designed consciously? Not always.

But we can employ behavioural design to intentionally influence user choices.

What is behavioural design?

Let me offer my own (likely simplistic) interpretation.

Applied behavioural design leverages tools and frameworks from economics, psychology, and user experience (UX) to understand how and why we make decisions.

If you've ever aimed to make the activation experience frictionless or incorporated social proof into onboarding, then you've been experimenting with behavioural design. Good job!

"We're full of biases, and they play a crucial role in our decision-making process"

Nikita Abrosimov, Head of Product @ SonarHome

Where should we put our focus?

Everywhere. Literally.

Every moment when a decision is made—whether consciously ("Should I become a paid subscriber?") or unconsciously ("Can I trust them?", "Is this product for me?") can be viewed through the lens of behavioral design.

Our minds analyze everything (often in the background) to make the next move.

Words, colors, layout, friction on the way to the goal, and the effort required to achieve it—all these factors play a role.

External factors, such as social influences and environmental cues, can also affect decisions.

Users may be tired or energized, in a high or low mood, and their level of focus can vary significantly.

The product might have a strong, trustworthy brand or seem completely new.

High-intent users actively searching for a solution and those brought in through paid acquisition may behave drastically differently.

All of this should be considered during the design process.

Wait, but how biased are the decisions?

We're full of biases, and they play a crucial role in our decision-making process.

Take loss aversion, which makes us prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains. This bias can make scarce items seem more valuable because we fear missing out on them.

Here's a small example. $30,000 might seem like a reasonable price for a car, but you might also think it's too expensive. However, if I told you the car originally costs $60,000 but I'm offering it to you for just $30,000, it suddenly seems like a great deal.

This tactic, often used in retail, is called anchoring bias. Our minds tend to use the first piece of information we receive as a reference point, which can lead to irrational purchase decisions.

This is just one example of the cognitive biases that create blind spots in our decision-making process.

What are the key principles?

From the discussion above, you’ve likely formed a vision of how broad the concept is and its applications.

Let’s outline the main principles to begin with.

Remove Frictions

First and foremost, behavioral design is about removing frictions (also known as barriers).

Who enjoys completing long forms? Very few of us.

Who's ready to struggle through a complex, opaque user experience? No one.

Users need to quickly understand what they should do to accomplish their current goal within the product. Ideally, with minimal effort.

Keep Them Focused

We live in an era of information overload, making it extremely difficult to keep someone engaged. Any unnecessary information or decisions to make will eventually lead to decision fatigue and churn.

To keep users engaged, minimize the number of choices they need to make. Think about where you can implement default options, for instance.

This is especially important during the first few interactions, when users are becoming familiar with the product.

Emotions

Emotions set us apart from machines. We experience them in response to what happens to and around us.

Do you know which emotions your product triggers?

Do your users find the welcome image attractive? Are they excited during the ‘aha moment’? Or maybe overwhelmed by the task they’re about to complete?

All of this greatly impacts the likelihood of retaining loyal customers.

The dark side of its application

The ultimate goal of behavioral design is to help users make the optimal choice.

'Optimal' implies balancing the outcome for both users and us as product owners.

Sometimes it’s difficult to find that balance, and the focus may shift too much to one side.

You may have heard of anti-patterns used to exploit inattentive users. Be cautious with such shady practices. While they may bring short-term results, they are likely to erode customer trust and drive users away from the product.

Moreover, they could lead to serious business consequences.

Practical ways to start

Putting theory aside for a moment, let’s dive into practical frameworks you can use to achieve your first results.

3B by Irrational Labs

I highly recommend this as a starting point.

It consists of three key steps, as suggested by its name.

You begin by identifying the key behaviour (what the user is trying to accomplish and why), then iteratively remove all potential barriers and amplify possible benefits (incentives).

Psych

The Psych framework can help you analyse and leverage users’ emotional states.

Essentially, you need to assess the user’s initial state when they interact with your product— do they have high or low intent?

The goal is to identify which parts of the experience trigger negative emotions and compensate for them by adding positively charged elements.

Here is a great intro.

Customer Effort Score

A particularly useful tool in product management is to ask users how difficult they found the specific actions or use cases.

This framework, called Customer Effort Score, allows us to quantitatively assess the amount of effort customers spend.

By conducting this analysis and minimizing user effort, you can achieve higher retention rates and increased user satisfaction.

Hope you enjoyed this short intro to behavioural design!