Anticipatory design
The next big thing in design, according to Huge CEO Aaron Shapiro, is designing for less choice.
Having to make fewer choices improves user satisfaction. This seems counter-intuitive since feeling in control is a big enhancer of customer satisfaction. So what’s going on?
According to some sources we make an eye-watering 35.000 choices each day. Making that many decisions causes something known as decision fatigue. That happens when our working memory is plagued by an overload of information.
The consequences of information overload are that our decision-making abilities are less optimal as the day progresses (which is why I write these blog posts in the early morning). Steve Jobs was well aware of this and did away with as many tiny decisions as he could. Like choosing what to wear each day.
This doesn’t mean that we should take away ALL choices and it doesn’t mean take away choices ALL THE TIME. Making the right choice gives people a sense of fulfilment. When people are buying shoes online, the choice to look at the shoes from all sides, to zoom in and to see them in combination with a dress are big choices. This is good stuff. When done right they raise customer trust which in turn raises the likelihood of them coming back to you instead of the store next door.
But you can help your customers conserve energy by removing the trivial choices. By making those choices on behalf of them. This guides your clients to the good stuff more effortlessly
To do this, we need to find out what our customer’s next step is. We have to be one step ahead of her. This sounds like mind reading but there is an actual method to this. It is called and it is a side-branch of User eXperience design.
With Anticipatory Design we leverage past choices to understand future decisions. Some methods that are used for this are:
What is the one thing you can improve to make your customer experience easier?
Photo: Jan Torn
Recent Comments