by author Jodi Stout
Nudge: to gently push or prod someone to action
People prefer the path of least resistance when making decisions. They also enjoy a generally favorable outcome. Thankfully there are some universal principles proven to “help” someone along, like a carrot on a stick, to make the desired decision. These powerful strategies can be especially useful when designing your website toward a clear CTA (call to action).
Choice architecture: a method of structuring a path that leads to predictable behavior without restricting options or significantly changing incentives.
For example, in onboarding a new employee for insurance benefit selection, when the default option is to not be registered for a pension savings program, savings rates are low. When the default option is to enroll new staff automatically, savings rates increase dramatically.
In both cases, employees are informed of the options, are free to join or change plans but intelligent defaults nudge an employee to make the most responsible, desired and acceptable decision.
1.) Defaults – select defaults that do the least harm and most good. For instance, many lives are lost due to the lack of available organ donations. This could be addressed by changing the default option from opt-in to opt-out.
2.) Feedback – Provide visible and immediate feedback for actions and inactions. Modern vehicles have visual and audio alerts that stay on until a seatbelt is fastened, increasing seatbelt usage.
3.) Incentives – Avoid incentive conflicts and align incentives to preferred behaviors. The “cash for clunkers” legislation passed in 2009 to provide a cash incentive to trade in older cars for new ones. boosting sales and stimulating the ailing auto industry.
4.) Structured Choices – Provide the means to simplify and filter complexity to facilitate decision making. Netflix structures choices for customers to help direct them to movies they might enjoy as well as allows them to search by genre, actors, director or recommendation.
5.) Visible Goals – Make simple performance measures clearly visible so that people can immediately assess their performance against a goal state. Clearly displaying manufacturing output and goals in a factory is often enough to increase productivity.
Consider using nudges in the design of objects and environments where behavior modification or a call to action is key.
Set default states that correspond to the most generally desired option, not the most conservative. Provide clear, visible and immediate feedback to reinforce desired actions and mildly discourage undesired choices.
Align incentives with desired behaviors, being careful to avoid incentive conflict. Simplify and structure choices when decision-making parameters are complex.
Source:
Universal Principles of Design (Lidwell, Holden, Butler)