Bill Gribbons' talk from the UXPA Boston 2015 Conference

1. faulty
by
design:
an
examina(on
of
user
decision
making
Boston UXPA
Bill Gribbons, Ph.D
Director of UX Programs, Bentley University
Founder of the User Experience Center and Studio
wgribbons@bentley.edu
May 2015

2. what
we
will
consider
decision making in our lives
decision making as a window to all behavior
the faulty nature of decision making
underlying causes
affects on user behavior and performance
possible design support

3. what
is
decision
making?
where
I
am
many
choices
where
I
want
to
be
uncertainty
invest'ent costs
value cog/itive disabilit2
St4ess
confidence available infor'ation
ex9er:ise
cult;re
age
Time-­‐to act fatig;e risk

4. let’s
face
it:
we’re
bad
at
it
we are designed to minimize effort and optimize performance… even in the most
critical life decisions…
our
most
expensive
purchases,
investments,
business
decisions,
choosing
life
partners…
and
the
list
goes
on
and
on….
for
example:
#1
financial
concern
of
Americans
is
enough
money
to
reCre
just
over
half
of
adult
Americans
are
saving
anything
for
reCrement
50%
of
45-­‐50
year
olds
have
saved
less
than
$25,000
for
reCrement
and
need
I
share
the
stats
on
American's
health
goals
versus
the
decisions
they
make.

5. what’s
wrong?
is it a hardware or software problem?
load
anxiety
near-­‐term
focus

6. a
quick
note
on
biases
and
heurisCcs
systemaCc
errors
are
know
as
biases
and
they
occur
predictably
in
parCcular
contexts
heurisCcs,
in
the
hands
of
an
expert,
are
probability
based
rules
driven
by
recogniCon
of
paOerns
(not
intuiCon)

7. efficiency
and
load
based on a limited
pool of aAentional
resources, we tend to
be cog/itive misers
when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one…
heuristics and simple r;les
t29icalit2 bias
availabilit2 bias
simplif2 choices
Kahneman’s
noCon
of
bounded
raConality
anchoring bias
satisficing

8. near-­‐term
outlook
we
should
be
planning
for
re(rement…
…
but,
that
sports
car
sure
looks
good
in
the
driveway
today….
behavioral economists credit this to a bias for near-term survival

9. we
are
designed
to
keep
anxiety
in
check
confir'ational bias
selective omission
avoidance behavior
t;nnel vision
or
cog/itive nar4owing
what
happens
if
we
don’t?

10. what
does
this
mean
for
our
users?
are
we
designing
for
hypotheCcal
logical
raConal
agents
or
real
people?
this
gets
tricky,
as
Kahneman
states,
people
tend
to
exaggerate
the
role
of
the
slow,
raConal
side
of
their
thinking

11. buOons
Two
days
later…
at time of purchase when using the product

12. compensaCng
for
the
predictably
irraConal
for
example,
while
interviewing
a
future
user
for
the
previous
slide’s
product
the
conversaCon
might
go
like
this:
“ I can
understand why you like those buAons – you know, I love buAons too,
but (pause…) humor me for a moment. What if we desig/ed a device
with fewer buAons but with a lower cost and increased ease of use?”
“here, let me show you……”
In
other
words,
what
I
did
is
swap
out
the
“false
value”
of
buOons
for
the
real
human
value
of
investment
costs
-­‐-­‐-­‐
Cme
and
money.

13. Let’s
take
a
look

14. first
the
bad….
7
plans
21
coverage
aspects
no
comparison
engine
no
filters
connecCons:
load,
simplificaCon,
opCmism
©
William
Gribbons,
2015

15. ©
William
Gribbons,
2015
A
different
approach…

18. more
bad…
©
William
Gribbons,
2015

19. A
few
more
stories….
X
Sorry,
pictures
are
not
advisable
here
to
avoid
legal
problems
and
keep
me
a
free
man….

20. connec3on:
perhaps
capturing
the
expert’s
rule
or
heurisCc?
connec3on:
anxiety,
countering
availability
bias

21. the
case
of
Zillow
Connec3on:
providing
the
buyer
with
logical,
raConal
simplificaCon
filters
rather
than
allowing
this
process
to
play
out
emoConally
or
irraConally
in
the
subconscious
of
the
buyer
(thinking
fast)

24. the
future…beware
the
“nudger”

25. closing
thoughts
design
to
support
“real
people”
rather
than
a
mythological
raConal
logical,
agent.
consider
these
behaviors
in
our
interacCons
with
users
in
the
field
seek
to
counter
these
persistent
psychological
forces
without
venturing
too
far
down
the
slippery
slope
of
nudging