UX leaders all have one thing in common: All of them understand that appreciating the relationship between psychology and UX is absolutely essential to success. In the end, it is best to understand that UX is essentially applying psychology to all aspects of design. The best examples of this relationship are examples that understand that not all users are trapped in mid-1990s technology. UX that appreciates user psychology succeeds at not only appreciating the intelligence of those who use web browsers and other products, but at emphasizing the importance and value of UX work.
In order to change the way stakeholders look at the work brought to the table by UX designers, it is the responsibility of UX designers to better appreciate and work with the psychology of users.
The Basics Of UX And Users Psychology
Of course, when we get into something like the relationship between UX and user psychology, we’re talking about something rather complex. Those who want to lead as a UX professional must be able to do three things. They have to know the psychology, apply the psychology, and talk the psychology. With these things in place, you’re going to be in a much better position to give your users what they want.
And when you can do, and when you can prove you can do that over and over again, you’re going to have their loyalty:
- Understand that users are smarter than many people give them credit for being.
- It can be also be useful to remember that at the end of the day, they have things to do that are quite frankly more important than learning a complicated system.
- They need to learn enough to do their jobs.
- They may not even use your software as you intended them to!
- Most users have what is known as a “doing mode.” In fact, most of us operate with an extreme focus on what we are doing. This often involves speeding through something new as quickly as possible, so we can apply this new thing to what we are trying to accomplish. UX designers have to remember this mode of dealing with tasks, and design their products/ideas accordingly.
- Users also tend to prefer patterns. Changing the pattern on a whim is just bad design practice.
- Everything is trying to get their attention: We focus on things because so much is trying to get our attention. Keeping things straightforward and serialized in UX design can be a great way to make sure the focus stays where it belongs.
