Digital Psychology: Applied behavioural science

A revolutionary approach to developing user experiences

April 13, 2023

About me

Ian Huckvale

Head of user engagement

Twitter: @ianhux

I’m a UX specialist

I now work with behavioural scientists

Together we create great things

Successful waiters understand behavioural science:Although they may not realise that they do…

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When behavioural science is brought together with established UX thinking, we can create better and

more effective experiences

UX + behavioural science = better UX

Why add behavioural science to UX?

Behavioural science adds new dimensions to designing UX

There is a growing body of research and insight to draw on – both old and new thinking – what’s new is the application within digital

Scientific approach based on experimentation and testing can prove that you are adding value

Traditional usability and UX design:

Can the user see the button they need to press?

Is the form easy to fill in?

Can do

UX + behavioural science

Will the user press the button?

Can we make it more likely through an understanding of how their mind works?

Will do

UX + behavioural science

Will they do it more than once?

Will they come back?

Still do

Traditional usability and UXCan do

Will do

Still do

Usability, UX and behavioural science working together

Applied behavioural science

Some of the thinking is new

Some of the thinking is a lot older….

Just a minute …. Aristotle?

Aristotle’s ‘Ars Rhetorica’ is one of the earliest known texts about persuasion

Rhetoric: noun

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

First establish credibility and authority: then use emotional appeals and logical reasoning (or both) to win the argument

Aristotle's approach to persuasion:As seen in every charity campaign ever

So what’s new?

Charities took offline thinking and put it online – their campaign and fundraising specialists know what works

Something different is happening now – something pretty exciting:

• Tech and digital companies have never before had behavioural scientists on their full-time headcount

• A/B testing is morphing into robust controlled experimentation

• The leading specialists are publishing white papers and exposing their thinking to peer review

And when behavioural scientists get involved in the UX development process we can create something really special

GDS Behavioural insight: case study

Can behavioural science be used to get significantly more people to become organ donors by understanding how their mind works?

N.B. we’re just using this example – it’s not our project

Ref: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/organ-donor-registrations-trialling-different-approaches

The “control”

Controlled tests

Controlled tests

Which worked best?

The winning version

So what’s the big fuss

They made a difference of around 1%

Over a year that would equate to 96,000 more people registering as organ donors

So far so good…

3 takeaway principles to try out

Reciprocity: if you give someone something, they feel in debt to you and will consciously or subconsciously try to pay off that debt

Social proof: if people are aware that their friends and peers are doing something they are more likely to do it themselves

Public commitment: if people make a public statement that they are going to do something, it is more likely that they will follow through

Smokefree

Social proof

Public commitment

Reciprocity

How to approach your first experiment

Are any of these approaches guaranteed to work for me?

No. There is no silver bullet

What about traditional persuasion methods: cost, value etc?

You still need to consider those as well – it’s not an either or debate

Think like a scientist:

It’s about experimentation to see what works

Hypothesise, test, observe, refine, repeat

Design the study or it’s difficult to say whether you proved anything

UX + behavioural science = better user experience

A new approach to UX design – with huge potential to improve effectiveness of digital

A new approach that is happening already – probably more often than you think

A new approach you could be experimenting with now …. start thinking like a scientist