Psychology and UX – behavioural patterns & design patterns
Benno Purin
Director Clients & Operations, Co-Founder @ Digit-One
We reveal what sits behind the various behavioural patterns and what matters when putting them into practice. As in every medium, psychology plays a role in web design too — one that acts as a success factor for good design. Below we introduce a number of different behavioural patterns.
Psychology in user experience design
What motivates most users to interact with a website, or to make a purchase decision?
Quite simply: the majority of our decisions are driven by so-called behaviour patterns (behavioural patterns and cognitive biases).
These behavioural patterns have a positive effect on the overall user experience and therefore a direct influence on website traffic and conversion rate. At the more rational points of the user journey — logging in or choosing a payment method, for example — behavioural patterns are harder to apply and integrate. On product detail pages or landing pages, however, users act more intuitively, which is where behaviour patterns can have their maximum effect.
Which behavioural patterns exist, how they can influence our decisions, and what good versus manipulative (dark) UX design looks like — that's what we explain below.
Behavioural pattern: authority
Products demonstrably sell better when your own expert status, recommendations from experts or quality seals reinforce users in their purchase decision. How much trust is extended depends heavily on the product, and on whether the user is inclined to believe the authority in question.
In practice we often see quotes from experts or badges from certifications of every kind. This can help during concept work and UX design to integrate suitable modules into the website or store, in order to lift conversion rate and user trust sustainably.
Behavioural pattern: anchoring
Anchoring is among the most effective patterns and is therefore used in almost every store. Metaphorically, the anchor is dropped. In an online shop, for instance, price anchors are set that make the prices on the rest of the page appear lower. Users will then take that perceived price as their reference point for subsequent purchase decisions.
One of the best-known examples of this is a price reduction. The original price is shown struck through, and below it the user finds the regular price — which now appears even lower.
Behavioural pattern: scarcity
Scarcity targets users' fear of missing out. Artificial product scarcity leads to more impulse purchases, because customers worry that products will sell out or become unavailable if they take too long to decide. Products limited by time or edition also fall under this pattern.
Behavioural pattern: curiosity
In practice we see flash sales such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or product badges: "Only 2 left in stock".
Always curious about what's coming next? Curiosity is a very strong driver of customers' motivation to buy. You appeal to users' curiosity by awakening their desires and expectations of the products. In practice we often see this pattern in CTA buttons like "Learn more", which at the same time help keep the website well structured and let detailed information satisfy user needs on sub-pages. Through joy of use — the pleasure of operating the interface — you can sustainably increase how long customers spend on the website or online shop. With microinteractions, small animations and hover effects, we support customers with maximum intuitiveness.
Behavioural pattern: social proof
In much the same way as authority, users can also be influenced by the decisions of the crowd. Influencers or testimonials, for example, present products to the user to convey that they and many other customers have already chosen the product shown. Product reviews and other people's ratings help users decide on a particular product.
Behavioural patterns in e-commerce
Behavioural patterns are a very effective e-commerce tool in the UX space. Depending on the product and the vendor, the measures should be designed individually in order to improve the chances of success.