A strategy where engaging, preferred activities are used to motivate users to complete less engaging, necessary tasks. Useful for designing user interfaces and experiences that encourage desired behaviors by leveraging more enjoyable activities as rewards.
A cognitive bias where people give greater weight to outcomes that are certain compared to those that are merely probable. Important for designers to consider how users weigh certain outcomes more heavily in their decision-making.
A cognitive bias where individuals evaluate the value of bundled items differently than they would if the items were evaluated separately. Important for understanding user behavior and designing effective product bundles and pricing strategies.
The mistaken belief that a person who has experienced success in a random event has a higher probability of further success in additional attempts. Crucial for understanding and designing around user decision-making biases.
A cognitive bias where individuals tend to avoid risks when they perceive potential losses more acutely than potential gains. Important for understanding decision-making behavior in users and designing systems that mitigate risk aversion.
A tendency to avoid making decisions that might lead to regret, influencing risk-taking and decision-making behaviors. Crucial for understanding decision-making processes and designing systems that minimize regret.
A cognitive bias where people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them. Useful for understanding user attachment and designing persuasive experiences.
The tendency for images to be more easily remembered than words, highlighting the power of visual communication. Crucial for designing effective visual content that enhances memory retention and user engagement.
A theory that explains how information is processed through different sensory modalities, such as visual, auditory, and tactile. Important for designing user experiences that engage multiple senses for better interaction and understanding.
A framework for understanding what drives individuals to act, involving theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Important for designing products and experiences that align with users' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
The tendency to recall past behavior in a way that aligns with current beliefs and attitudes. Crucial for understanding how memories and self-perception can be influenced by current perspectives.
A principle that suggests people are more likely to comply with requests or follow suggestions from authority figures. Important for designing persuasive experiences and understanding user compliance.
A concept that humans make decisions within the limits of their knowledge, cognitive capacity, and available time, leading to satisficing rather than optimal solutions. Crucial for designing systems and processes that account for human cognitive limitations and decision-making processes.
A framework that combines multiple theories to explain and predict behavior, focusing on intention, knowledge, skills, environmental constraints, and habits. Crucial for designing interventions that effectively change user behavior.
A cognitive bias where people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (most intense point) and its end, rather than the total sum of the experience. Crucial for designing memorable and satisfying user experiences.
A behavior change method that encourages the adoption of small, easy-to-do habits that can lead to larger, sustainable behavior changes. Important for designing systems that support gradual and sustainable behavior change.
A behavioral economics concept where people categorize and treat money differently depending on its source or intended use. Crucial for understanding financial behavior and designing systems that align with users' mental accounting practices.
A cognitive bias where people judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions). Important for understanding user decision-making and designing systems that mitigate this bias.
Designing products that leverage behavioral science to influence user behavior in positive ways. Crucial for creating products that are effective in shaping user behavior and improving engagement.
A set of principles describing how the human mind organizes visual information into meaningful wholes. Crucial for designing intuitive digital interfaces and cohesive user experiences that align with natural human perception patterns.
The tendency for individuals to continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money, or effort) rather than future potential benefits. Important for understanding decision-making biases and designing systems that help users avoid irrational persistence.
The application of neuroscience principles to marketing, aiming to understand consumer behavior and improve marketing strategies. Important for creating more effective and engaging marketing campaigns.
The study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect our perception. Useful for understanding and applying narrative techniques in design and communication.
An economic theory that explains why some necessities, such as water, are less expensive than non-essentials, like diamonds, despite their greater utility. Useful for understanding consumer behavior and designing pricing strategies.
The theory that users search for information in a manner similar to animals foraging for food, aiming to maximize value while minimizing effort. Important for designing efficient and user-centered information retrieval systems.
A phenomenon where people fail to recognize a repeated item in a visual sequence, impacting information processing and perception. Important for understanding visual perception and designing interfaces that avoid repetitive confusion.
The psychological phenomenon where humorous content is more easily remembered and perceived positively by users. Useful for creating engaging and memorable user experiences.
A phenomenon where an item that stands out is more likely to be remembered than other items, often used in design to highlight important elements. Crucial for designing interfaces that effectively capture user attention.
A phenomenon where users fail to notice significant changes in their visual field. Important for understanding and designing around potential user perception issues.
A phenomenon where vivid mental images can interfere with actual perception, causing individuals to mistake imagined experiences for real ones. Important for ensuring that marketing and product design set realistic user expectations to avoid disappointment and maintain brand integrity.
A psychological phenomenon where the desire for harmony and conformity in a group results in irrational or dysfunctional decision-making. Crucial for recognizing and mitigating the risks of poor decision-making in teams.
The psychological phenomenon where people prefer options that are not too extreme, but just right. Crucial for designing products and experiences that cater to the majority preference.
A cognitive bias where individuals better remember the most recent information they have encountered, influencing decision-making and memory recall. Important for designing user experiences that leverage or mitigate the impact of recent information.
A phenomenon where new information interferes with the ability to recall previously learned information, affecting memory retention. Crucial for understanding memory dynamics and designing educational or training programs.
A phenomenon where users consciously or subconsciously ignore banner-like information or advertisements on websites. Important for designing effective web content that captures user attention.
A cognitive bias where people remember scenes as being more expansive than they actually were. Important for understanding how users perceive and recall visual information, aiding in better visual design decisions.
The observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. Useful for designing experiences that maintain user engagement and satisfaction over time.
A statistical phenomenon where a large number of hypotheses are tested, increasing the chance of a rare event being observed. Crucial for understanding and avoiding false positives in data analysis.
A cognitive shortcut that relies on the recognition of one option over another to make a decision, often used when individuals have limited information. Crucial for designing interfaces and experiences that facilitate quick and effective decision-making.
A cognitive bias where people judge the likelihood of an event based on its relative size rather than absolute probability. Important for understanding user decision-making biases and designing systems that present information accurately.
The cognitive bias where people treat a set of items as more significant when they are perceived as a cohesive group. Important for understanding user perception and decision-making.
The concept that humans have a finite capacity for attention, influencing how they perceive and interact with information. Crucial for designing user experiences that are not overwhelming and facilitate focus.
The phenomenon where people follow the direction of another person's gaze, influencing their attention and behavior. Important for understanding visual attention and designing more effective visual cues in interfaces.
A cognitive bias where people ignore the relevance of sample size in making judgments, often leading to erroneous conclusions. Crucial for designers to account for appropriate sample sizes in research and analysis.
A phenomenon where the winner of an auction tends to overpay due to emotional competition, leading to a less favorable outcome than anticipated. Important for understanding decision-making biases and designing systems that mitigate overbidding risks.
Also known as "Maslow's Hammer," a cognitive bias where people rely too heavily on a familiar tool or method, often summarized as "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.". Important for designers to recognize and avoid over-reliance on familiar methods in problem-solving and design.
A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. Crucial for understanding how people make decisions and the biases that influence their choices.
A strategic framework that designs user experiences to guide behavior and decisions towards desired outcomes. Crucial for creating effective and ethical influence in digital interfaces.
A cognitive bias where bizarre or unusual information is better remembered than common information. Useful for designers to create memorable and engaging user experiences by incorporating unique elements.
A cognitive bias where people assume others share the same beliefs, values, or preferences as themselves. Important for helping designers avoid projecting their own biases and assumptions onto users during research and design.
The phenomenon where having too many options leads to anxiety and difficulty making a decision, reducing overall satisfaction. Important for designing user experiences that balance choice and simplicity to enhance satisfaction.
A stimulus that gains reinforcing properties through association with a primary reinforcer, such as money or tokens, which are associated with basic needs. Essential for understanding complex behavior reinforcement strategies and designing effective reward systems.
A persuasion strategy that involves getting a person to agree to a small request to increase the likelihood of agreeing to a larger request later. Crucial for building user commitment and enhancing marketing and sales strategies.
The study of how individuals make choices among alternatives and the principles that guide these choices. Important for designing decision-making processes and interfaces that help users make informed choices.
A type of bias that occurs when the observer's expectations or beliefs influence their interpretation of what they are observing, including experimental outcomes. Essential for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of research and data collection.
A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their ability to control impulsive behavior, leading to overexposure to temptations. Important for designing systems that help users manage self-control and avoid overexposure to temptations.
A phenomenon where individuals' preferences between options change when the options are presented in different ways or contexts. Important for understanding and designing around inconsistencies in user choices.
The ability to use learned knowledge and experience, often increasing with age and accumulated learning. Important for understanding how expertise and knowledge accumulation impact design and decision-making.
A cognitive bias where people judge the likelihood of an event based on the size of its category rather than its actual probability. Crucial for designers to understand how category size influences user perception and decision-making processes.
The phenomenon where external incentives diminish intrinsic motivation, leading to reduced performance or engagement. Important for designing motivational strategies that do not undermine intrinsic motivation.