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Inspired by a UX Booth article Walk into a modern retail store and chances are that you will be bombarded by cleverly implemented psychological manipulation to induce spending. You might not realize it but that supermarket features a layout and design that is intended to make you add more in your shopping cart than you might have intended. E-commerce websites are also just as prone to encouraging buyer behavior, in this case through implementing certain user interface design elements. Naturally, psychological manipulation in user interface design raises the specter of ethical transgressions but that is par for the course. All major e-commerce sites are doing it one way or another, namely, justifying spending habits and making users feel better about their transactions. What power does the default user interface design hold? The most basic way that the user interface design of an e-commerce website can lead to users spending more is by getting the default settings and layout right. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has written on the “power of defaults”. Most users usually stick to the default user interface design and user experience, leaving a lot of customization options untouched. An example he gives of improving the default user interface design is of registration forms for events. If a user registers from, say, New York it would help if the country field would say “United States”. That way many users are saved a bit of work and it is this obliteration of small frictions that steer users to repeat purchases. One such example is the mental hurdle of shipping costs. One of the ways of dealing with this hurdle is by giving users the incentive to spend a little more for free shipping, for example. In other words users are made to feel smarter for spending more. What other user interface design elements encourage purchasing? Another method of making users feel like they should purchase an item is to introduce the 4th dimension. Adding a countdown to the user interface design brings a sense of urgency that can move a user from thinking “should I buy this really?” to “I better get this before I lose the opportunity”. Sites like Ebay and Groupon exploit this very well. In the case of Groupon it even takes on the characteristics of peer pressure. The user interface design features a big buy button but it also makes it a point to show how much a user would save, as well as how many other people have signed on. Should a user still feel like they won't buy it the user interface design features a very visible 'Buy it for a friend!' option. It is all contrived to make the user think “this is a great opportunity, so good that even if I can't make it, maybe I should get it for someone because it would be a shame to let this pass”. How do some e-commerce sites counter the negative feedback of impulse buys? E-commerce websites have also found a neat way of countering the shopper's guilt that can come from impulse buys. This can in turn foster thoughts of returning a product as a way of dealing with the guilt. A technique Apple employs with the App Store is to not send out receipts right away. This is necessary because the App Store apps have no trial versions. Sure some apps have free variants with their wings clipped but once you fork out a wad (for an iPhone app) you might realize that you never really needed it at all. According to UXBooth seeing the consequences of a purchase is considered negative feedback when it comes to the impulse buy. The user interface design of e-commerce could, and should, also be about return on investment, such as with Niehaus wireframes. Next time you're about to go on a shopping spree online ask yourself who's pulling the strings? ================= About The Author: ================= Pidoco.com – Interface Design, Wireframe, Wireframes, Wireframe Software, Interface Design Software, Online Wireframe Tool, Wireframe Tool, Interface Prototyping, Clickable Wireframes, Usability Testing and Digital Paper Prototyping. User centered design for improved User Interface Design.
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