Psychology has always been an integral part of the design world. Especially when designing apps and websites, designers often use psychological factors to capture users’ attention. This helps them in making them take the actions that they want, resulting in better conversion rates.
Even though the concept of psychology in design is new to you, it is not new in the UI UX world. This field has many opportunities for individuals of both worlds, Psychology and Design. Psychology graduates often think their career can steer only towards becoming a psychologist, HR, researcher, or related fields, but that’s not the case.
If you’re looking for a career that is a combination of psychology, art, and science, then UX designing might be the right career for you. You can do loads of online UX designer certification courses that will help you leap forward in your career as a UX designer. The UX Bootcamp is one such program that will allow you to gain expert insights and knowledge of this industry.
But before understanding a career in this field, let’s see how behavioral psychology or user behavior can be used in designing.
What is behavioral psychology in design?
Behavioral psychology is comprehending why we behave as we do. Understanding how people think and act to incorporate that knowledge into designs to prompt particular behaviors is known as behavioral designing. Simply put, it is to understand what drives a user to take certain actions and use this reasoning in the technical framework.
This psychology of design helps in creating a user-centered framework that is applied when designers are building apps or software. The streams of User Experience (UX) designing and psychology intersect to give better results as designers understand what creates users’ ability and motivate them to complete an action.
Behavioral psychology is used to enhance the visual appeal for customers. UX designing can impact the experiences of millions of users around the world. The simple formula that is used in this field is:
Users behavior = Ability + Motivation + Nudges (Triggers)
When designing certain apps, UX designers can use the behavioral psychology of their user base as a guide to creating more immersive experiences for them. But how is psychology in design creating a stir in the field?
How is understanding user behavior advancing the future of UX?
Behavioral and psychological design can fill voids in the existing framework. Since UX designers can use insights from human behavior, these proven explanations make their designs more user-friendly. Since these are predictable psychological patterns, UX developers don’t have to keep on conducting new research to understand UX psychology.
This can highly profit the future of UX designing as more companies and brands would want to incorporate these practices to get better results. But what are these practices, and based on what principles do they work? Let’s analyze them closely.
Behavioral Design Psychology principles
Here are some of the UX psychology principles that are used in in-app or web designing by many UX designers:
-
Easy procedure
This involves simplifying the user process through designs and interfaces that are easy to use. This UX design psychology principle also works on making the app as frictionless or bug-free as possible.
-
Providing a cue
Guiding users to perform a particular action by providing them with a cue is used to change users’ behavior. This technique gradually shifts a user’s mind into making profitable decisions.
-
Social proof
Giving users validation that several others also take the decision they’re taking and is safe to continue. This psychological design principle is seen in many e-commerce apps where users can see product ratings and reviews and how many people bought a particular product.
-
Satisficing
This principle provides users with an easy, obvious choice when they visit your application. Most people want faster answers online and won’t spend much time skimming through the application. The key is quickly getting users what they want and making access easier.
-
Safe searching
Providing users with a software or application that is less skeptical so they can go ahead with using it and checking out its features. Safety is always a thought in the user’s mind when using any app on the internet.
-
Customized Approach
Apps or platforms that understand the psychology of design related to more custom approaches do better than those that don’t. For example, users want to explore and use an app that can be customized at any step. This includes things like changing usernames and passwords whenever they need to.
-
Ostrich effect
This UX psychology principle revolves around reminding users that they haven’t achieved their aimed goals. Through positive prompting systems, apps can encourage users to do better and return to the app.
Being a UX designer, you will be taught how to work with these design psychology principles in your UX program. But how can you advance your career in this field?
How to change your career to UX design psychology?
Interested individuals can pursue UX design without a degree in any related field. However, these individuals must have the creative and technical skills to launch themselves in this field successfully. To learn the psychology of design, individuals must have skills like visual communication, designing, IT, and others.
If you’re moving from psychology to design, you must be interested in creativity, art, and design. Online courses allow you to develop these skills and learn to work with UI-UX tools. Sites like Coursera, Simplilearn, Udemy, and others offer a variety of UX design psychology courses. They help you understand the fundamentals and advance your career.
Since there is a greater need for these professionals, their salary packages are higher. The average salary for a UX designer in the US is $94,823 per year as of 2023. You can get even higher-paying job opportunities with work experience and certifications.
Conclusion
The role of psychology in design is vast and significant. For years designers have been incorporating psychological principles to give consumers better experiences. UX designers use these psychological elements to make apps and software more appealing to the masses so that a particular business can garner improved user engagement.
