The psychology trick that makes any app feel 10x better transcript

Do you ever open an app and think, "Damn, this thing feels good." but you can't exactly place why that is? Or why some other apps just don't feel enjoyable to use and something feels off? Well, it's not just good design taste. It's actually deeply rooted in psychology and how we operate as humans. Well, in this video, we're going to dive into some psychology principles that will elevate any app to the next level. >> [music] >> Let's start this off with a super basic one, the goal gradient effect.

We can think about this as how your brain likes to close loops and goals. Think about when a runner is going for a long distance and they feel like they can't push through and they want to give up. And then when they finally see the finish line, they all of a sudden get this burst of energy and motivation to push as hard as they possibly can and seemingly out of nowhere, they have the energy finish the race. This is the psychology behind things like progress bars, streaks, onboarding completion.

Instead of surfacing things like, "Complete this task." apps feel good when they surface things like, "Five of seven tasks completed." or "Three minutes until your onboarding is complete." It's why onboarding experiences that have progress bars throughout the entire experience >> [music] >> often have higher completion rates than ones without. The peak end goal. This is where our brain only remembers the high points and the low points, but doesn't really remember anything in the middle.

When we look at things like restaurants, you remember experiences that were exceptional, like when you went to that steakhouse [music] and you remember how good the steak was and how outstanding the service was. On the other side, >> [music] >> you remember when the food was horrible and the server was an and they did not go above and beyond like they should. >> Is this path clear? Okay, I'm I'm a waiter and we don't want my neck being broken now, do we?

Cuz how are we going to get the food to you guys? >> I'm so sorry. >> Yeah, it's okay. >> Those are the moments you remember. You don't remember all the in-betweens that were just okay or baseline. This is why when you go to apps like Airbnb or Duolingo, you see so much emphasis put on the success screens and the positive reinforcement. It's why when some apps have extremely long broken experiences, >> [music] >> you remember how poor those experiences were and the high friction moments and the frustration that you had during those times.

Those are the things that stick out. The labor illusion. This one is one of my favorites. This is where we as humans tend to put significantly more value on things that take time. It's why we put so much value behind things like going to the gym or completing a marathon or cooking a meal that takes time. It's because of the time sunk cost that we put into it and therefore we find it more valuable. This is why apps bake an extra [music] time for things like validating of a driver's license or sending a background check, even if those tasks are instant.

Users want to feel like something is actually going on because they want to have this sense of security because a lot of those times those tasks are sensitive in nature and >> [music] >> they don't want them to be instantaneous. As much as you might think that faster is better in every situation, psychology tends to tell [music] us a completely different story. Von Restorff effect. Our brains remember things that are different.

When we think about situations where there seemingly is multiple selections of the exact same thing, we tend to remember only the one that was slightly different than the other ones. It's why when you go to an ice cream store and there is a ton of standard flavors, you remember that unique one, not the chocolate and the vanilla. In interface design, we see that some of the best apps, they don't just dump lists of UI elements onto a page with large menus or elements, but rather they're very specific with what areas they want to call attention to and highlight.

They tend to feature things with extra icons or illustrations to make users remember that those are the things that are the most important. When apps don't do this, something feels off and it's really tough to place your finger on the subtleties of why that is. Choice overload. Think about this when you go to a restaurant and you have a menu that has tons and tons of options. Immediately you feel tense, you don't know what to pick, you get a little bit of anxiety because there's too many options and your brain can't process that many things.

And this is why sometimes we feel uneasy and we can't really place why that is. The same goes for design of apps. If we go into some app where there's too many options, too much in the navigation, they're giving us every single thing that we could possibly navigate through, we feel overwhelmed because we don't know where to start. That's why the best of the apps do things like provide filtering [music] and searching to be able to digest through things.

It's why they categorize things or completely remove elements all together. It's to reduce the fatigue that we have for decision-making. So, that wraps up the video. And so, hopefully you should be able to take some of these principles and immediately go make your app feel 10 times better. And if you're a little unsure of where to start on your design, go ahead and contact me below and we can chat. I thank you so much for watching the video.

Hit the like and subscribe button, and we'll see you later.