Frustration is the most important emotion in user experience design according to the document. It discusses how emotions impact decision making and how designers are using emotions. It then focuses on discovering and reducing frustration for users by identifying common causes like misleading content, irrelevance, unlabeled icons, decision overload, and sacrificing user experience for money. The document advocates validating user emotions, understanding their goals and pain points, and providing case studies for how to improve the user experience by reducing sources of frustration.
“Who here is a designer? Who here is a Copywriter? Who here is a Project Manager?
Cereal
It doesn't matter what your title is.
If you are here, as of today, you are a UX professional.
If you have any impact, direct or indirect, on what your user’s experience, you are most definitely a UX professional.
So first, I’d like to congratulate everyone in this room on their new job titles *clap*
Lets look at an example of how emotion can impact decision making…
Even some of the biggest decision makers in the world; a judge's decision in the court of law; are unknowingly at the mercy of their emotions.
There was a study which discovered that judges make decisions differently depending on the time of day and mood
“They looked at more than 1,000 rulings made by eight judges.
They found that the likelihood of a favorable ruling peaked at the beginning of the day, steadily declining over time from a probability of about 65% to nearly zero.
Then spiking back up to about 65% after a break for a meal or snack.
Pretty much: when judges were on good moods, feeling positive emotions, they were more favorable. When they were in shitty hangry moods feeling negative emotions, they were less favorable.
When people learn the influence of emotion on decision making through stories like this,
There’s two very different schools of thought on what to do with this information.
The first is…
how can we inject new emotions or peak emotions into our users through our content,
So we can get them in a state where they are more likely to say yes to whatever it is they’re selling.
In that judge example, this group of thought would try to figure out how to manipulate judges to be in better moods than normal to get a favorable ruling out of them.
The other, which I’m a part of is…
How can we understand and reduce the emotions that distract our users from making good decisions. Which is most commonly: FRUSTRATION!
In the judge’s example, this group of thought would focus on what is causing the emotions that are distracting judge’s from being able to make a calculated, conscious decision.
Today, we’re going to cover those two schools of thought.
We’re going to cover how some brands are currently using emotion versus how they should be
And then we’re going to look at some common frustrating experiences and how you can find & fix them for the experience you provide.
Currently, many brands are trying to inject irrelevant emotions or peak existing ones to get people into a more “favorable” states.
Lets look at some ways brands are currently doing that…
This, is clickbait. And its actually hilarious. Especially when you read some of them out loud.
When a brands main KPI is article visits or clicks, shock is their emotional tool to maximize it.
But how many people here have clicked on an article like this and were actually satisfied with the end result?
Can you imagine the bounce rate for these articles?
Now Gary Vee is one of the most inspirational speakers I’ve ever witnessed. Ever. If you’ve ever listened to the guy, you know what I mean. He gets you off your ass and feeling like you can do anything.
But sometimes, his messaging can be a tad too dramatic.
And im not talking about the cussing. Cussing is cool.
I’m talking about his philosophy of being obsessed with losing.
I’m talking about his philosophy of being obsessed with losing.
I mean, that’s a shocking thing to hear from a successful person. That you should strive to fuck up and that his success stems from his obsession with losing.
But in reality, this idea is outlandish. It’s an exaggeration of the idea that you should embrace and learn from failure, but you shouldn’t obsess over it.
He’s peaking your emotion by saying something shocking, so you’ll be more likely to buy his book on Amazon as you’re walking out of the conference.
understand supposed to be funny. BUT they might be peaking an emotion of anger here instead, which is bad for them and for the user.
injecting new emotions or inflating existing emotions are not sustainable.
Studies show that excess emotions, both positive and negative, cloud a person’s judgement and lead to poor decision-making. .
When people purchase your product or service under the influence of the emotions you injected or inflated, they have a higher chance of spending money on something they haven’t fully evaluated as being right for them.
A study published by the American Psychological Association explains that one of the leading causes of buyer’s remorse is making decisions when our emotions and senses are energized or “Aroused”.
When a person is presented with a goal, arousing the senses and emotions around that goal lead to an increase of the perceived value of it.
But as soon as that energy or ”Arousal” wears off, the buyer is able to look at the purchase with a clear mindand realize that making that purchase wasn’t the best decision to make for themselves.
Now imagine, instead of trying to peak or inject emotions into you, brands were tracking your emotions to know the ideal time(s) to send you ads? Kind of screwed up, right?
Good ol Amazon is trying to make that wish come true.
Amazon’s advertisers could use this to take advantage of shopping addiction. When a person is sad, Alexa will potentially work on the back end to deliver them a unique advertisement with personalized messaging.
This is DANGEROUS.
The #1 trigger of shopping addiction is when people are feeling emotional distress
Stress shopping
https://smartercx.com/new-study-reveals-the-stats-on-stress-shopping/
Shopping addictions
https://www.psychguides.com/behavioral-disorders/shopping-addiction/
Our natural emotions are not opportunities to sell something. It is unethical to take advantage of a person’s emotional state in order to make more money.
These are all bad tactics to use when you understand a users emotions.
So what should we be doing when are users are feeling emotional?
VALIDATE their emotions. Let them know that they are not alone in this situation.
If they are at your website bc your offering solves a specific problem they have, express to them that you UNDERSTAND their pain.
The better you can communicate their problems, the more trust you will gain from them on providing a competent solution!
And then show them the “happy ending” your product or service can offer them.
But first, lets talk about the potential impact of reducing user frustration.
We have a client in the moving company industry. They have a paid landing page that lets users fill out a form to eventually receive a quote on their upcoming move.
This is the only line of copy the user saw when they landed on the page.
So we thought, hey, there’s got to be something better we can put here to help encourage users to complete the form!
Here are the variations we tested, and the results…
The only winning variation was the headline that communicated urgency. And it won by a lot. 8% is a very big lift from simply changing the copy in a headline.
We always knew that users coming through paid search and looking for these quotes were experiencing urgency.
But it wasn’t until we ran this test that we found out how impactful it is to validate and speak to the user’s emotion. In this case, urgency.
Whew. We made it!
As UX professionals, when it comes to emotion,
Our first primary focus should be ON ONE THING…
How can we understand and reduce the emotions that distract our users from making good decisions. Which is most commonly: FRUSTRATION!
But first, lets talk about the potential impact of reducing user frustration.
So when a user signed up for a free trial on Netflix a few years back, they would provide their credit card and after one month would start to be automatically charged.
I think we’ve all experienced this somewhere, and its mad frustrating.
So customers were calling a few days after their free trial ended saying they forgot to cancel. And Netflix gave them their money back. this costed them about $10million per year.
So, Someone at Netflix suggested, to reduce this frustration, they send an email to users a few days before their trial ended with an opt-in or a “cancel subscription” button.
Great for users, right?
But for the business, how far down do you think their free trial to paying customer signups went?
So at the time the free trial to paying customer rate was 90%.
Keep in mind, a chunk of that 90% churned just a few days after their free trial ended bc they forgot to cancel at the end of it.
How far down do you think it went after they started sending notification emails?
It only went down 5 points to 85%.
And to be honest, you should rather have 85% of people sign up as their own conscious decision
instead 90% of people sign up because a specific date passed.
This is one of the reasons Netflix is as gigantic and trusted as it is. Their desire to find and reduce the amount of frustration their users are going through.
They are as big as they are today because of that 5 point drop. The long-term benefits were much more valuable than the small loss they incurred to please their users.
As we mentioned, having a deep understanding of their problems and frustrations, specifically what cause them, is the most valuable thing a UX professional can do in regards to emotions.
Frustration!
Gmail gives you the “option” to “open in safari”
But you’re still in the gmail app when you click that button.
You have to click that 2nd unlabeled button to truly get out of the gmail app.
Maybe they just want to keep your browsing within their app for convenience right? Not to track everything that you're doing. No, no no no no no.
Gmail gives you the “option” to “open in safari”
But you’re still in the gmail app when you click that button.
You have to click that 2nd unlabeled button to truly get out of the gmail app.
Maybe they just want to keep your browsing within their app for convenience right? Not to track everything that you're doing. No, no no no no no.
Gmail gives you the “option” to “open in safari”
But you’re still in the gmail app when you click that button.
You have to click that 2nd unlabeled button to truly get out of the gmail app.
Maybe they just want to keep your browsing within their app for convenience right? Not to track everything that you're doing. No, no no no no no.
Maybe they just want to keep your browsing within their app for convenience right? Not to track everything that you're doing. No, no no no no no.
ANOTHER DIME from Doug Collins
I know this is like a controversial topic but Jason is advertising on our busses!
But first, lets talk about the potential impact of reducing user frustration.
We have a moving company client. This is the form that is presented on the landing view of their page.
What would you expect to happen once you input your zip codes and click this button?
This is what actually happens…
More form fields!
We ran user tests on this page, and when they came across it, they expressed things like…
Or in regards to the extra form fields that popped up afterwards…
We learned through user testing, that users were much less likely to complete the form due to the deception and misleading content that existed in that CTA.
So we decided to run an AB Test on this button to be more representative of what actually happens when you click it.
Here are the variations we tested, and the results…
Every. Single. Variation beat the original.
One of which won with 95% statistical significance: Next Step.
Imagine the opportunities that exist if making a small copy change to reduce frustration can improve your conversion rates by over 6 and a half percent?
We found the problem through user testing and getting a better understanding of our user’s frustrations.
We fixed the problem through testing solutions in regards to that specific frustration.
Who shops at Safeway? When you order online, they have a new feature, “Customers Also Bought”
Sounds helpful, right? No, it’s actually frustrating.
If I’m looking for almond milk, which is the “health concious” alternative to regular milk, why would I want to clog up my arteries with black label bacon???
While icons are cute, by themselves they are mostly useless.
When you use icons on your product or on your website, you should (almost) always pair them with a label.
Otherwise, people will try to put their baby in the washing machine. Or expect a baby to come out of it.
Here’s a few more examples of how unlabeled icons lead to user frustration
Here’s a few more examples of how unlabeled icons lead to user frustration
Here’s a few more examples of how unlabeled icons lead to user frustration
If Apple understood that when we get a phone call, (which is scary for this generation in the first place), we are literally put on the clock to make a decision.
When we operate under pressure, it’s harder for us to quickly identify and understand all of our options. This doesn’t help when you present 5 different options at the same time (with inconsistent iconography that causes a higher cognitive load).
If they did any user research, they would actually understand this frustration and might limit the decision they present to you or design them in a way that is easier to quickly understand.
So… uhhh… where’s the down button?
WAIT tim, i dont get it.
look at the headline!
Oh cmon thats just the landing view. Keep scrolling you over-critical presenter!
Keep scrolling? Ok, sure. *scrolls once*
This is what you see after a scroll on a forbes article about why usability is essential.
They dont care about your frustration. They care about dolla dolla bills yall.
Since i despise this so much, I’ve decided to share a way for you to avoid this frustration.
Pocket!
Pocket saves articles from the web for you to read later.
It also removes all those pesky ads.
Here’s the same article, but using the app “Pocket”
Emotional decisions can lead users to be regretful.
Lucid decisions dont.
So next time your working on a project, think about this:
“how can we help our users have a clear state-of-mind so they can see the true value of what we provide and become lifelong customers?”
Data behind why we want user to be lucid
How to avoid these things
Desire slide: Shame
CNN Slide: Make sure its iOs or if its for real
Pocket slide: pulls semantic html
grammar
shame: understand supposed to be funny, but they're just insensitive and lacks respect for the users
Gaming: difficulty shame
Twitter: this person is perceived as an authority by people who dont realize
Twitter rant: doesnt see how it tied in
more deliberate body language and movement
safeway: not necessary false assumption - could be laziness - either hard coding or relying on algorithms without fixing it
Whose in the audience: milk comes first (before asking everyone)
premise: All emotions are not bad - preface that in intro
Titles:
Observation:
Rated R: Be more real (not as joke) voice-over this is real shit
gary vee - shock isnt swearing, its the message
Good example: Netflix not sending notification before and after
Problem – why it matters
Thanks slide – “continue the conversation, ….”