Cognitive bias CaRds The detk of 52 UX Cards
What are those cards? Co nitive biases are psycholo ical thou ht mechanisms and tendencies that cause the human brain to draw incorrect conclusions. For better or worse, you can use them in many di erent ways to influence user behaviour in your products and services. These biases will also impact collaboration between team members, meetin s, and behaviors duri ° your user tests.
The cards, explainations and more tools can be found on: https://stephaniewalter.desi n/blo /52-ux-cards-to-discover-co nitive-biases/
Who created the cards The list of co nitive biases is lon and looks scary to a lot of people. To make it easier to di est, Laurence Va ner and Stéphanie Walter selected 52 out of the complete list and or anized them into 5 cate ories.
Cards created by Laurence Va ner & Stephanie Walter -- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 The cards
We or anized the cards into 5 cate ories. Each cate ory is represented by a colour and a symbol.
Decision-makin & behavior Anchoring
Thinkin & problem solvin The tendency for people to depend too heavily on an initial piece of information o ered (considered to be the "anchor") when makin decisions. Those objects near the anchor tend to be assimilated Memories & recallin toward it and those further away tend to be displaced in the other direction. Interview & user testin
Team work, social & meetin s DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
This work is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Cards created by Laurence Va ner & Stephanie Walter -- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 How to use them?
These cards were created for teachin purposes. They help team members become aware of their own biases and the di erent biases they can induce, whether on purpose or not, to users.
They can also be used as a cheat sheet and as “reminder cards” while desi nin . You can use them in small workshops with your coworkers to raise awareness amon your team.
1. Discover and recall
1.1 Discovery Distribute the cards to roups (or individuals). Ask the people in the roup to work to ether to recall examples of projects, interfaces or work related situations where they mi ht have faced those biases. (10 minutes)
1.2 Sharing Each roup presents 1 or 2 of the biases with an example to all participants in the workshop. At the end of the sharin session, dependin on how many roups, people “know” at least 10 biases. (2-3 minutes per roup)
Cards created by Laurence Va ner & Stephanie Walter -- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 How to use them?
2. Build an experience
2.1 Let’s be evil! The people in the roup (or individuals) will now ima ine the most manipulative experience possible. They need to use as many biases as possible: those from the cards, those they already know. They can also check uxinlux. ithub.io/co nitive-biases for more ideas. You can ask them to build an interface, but also a non-di ital experience, or even make an advertisement, a TV spot, etc. (15/20 minutes)
2.2 Sharing Each roup then presents their own evil experience by listin the di erent biases used. Count the points and discover which roup is the most evil and manipulative! (2-3 minutes per roup)
Cards created by Laurence Va ner & Stephanie Walter -- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Anchoring Availability heuristic
The tendency for people to depend too The belief that if somethin can be heavily on an initial piece of information recalled, it must be important, or at least o ered (considered to be the "anchor") more important than alternative solutions when makin decisions. Those objects which are not as readily recalled. near the anchor tend to be assimilated Subsequently people tend to heavily toward it and those further away tend to wei h their jud ments toward more be displaced in the other direction. recent information, makin new opinions biased toward that latest news.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Default effect Denomination effect
When iven a choice between several The tendency to spend more money options, the tendency to favor the default when it is denominated in small amounts one. (e. .) rather than lar e amounts (e. ., bills).
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Loss aversion Forer / Barnum Effect
The disutility of ivin up an object is The tendency for individuals to ive hi h reater than the utility associated with accuracy ratin s to descriptions of their acquirin it. People have a tendency to personality that supposedly are tailored prefer avoidin losses to acquirin specifically for them but are in fact va ue equivalent ains: it is better to not lose 5€ and eneral enou h to apply to a wide than to find 5€. ran e of people. This e ect can provide a partial some beliefs and practices, such as astrolo y, fortune tellin , some types of personality tests, etc.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
IKEA Effect Illusory truth effect
The tendency for people to place a The tendency to believe that a statement disproportionately hi h value on objects is true if it is easier to process, or if it has that they partially assembled themselves, been stated multiple times, re ardless of such as furniture from IKEA, re ardless of its actual veracity. the quality of the end product.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Mere exposure effect Money illusion
The tendency to preferer or like some The tendency to concentrate on the thin s merely because of familiarity with nominal value (value on the bills) of them. money rather than its value in terms of purchasin power.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Status quo bias Unit bias
The tendency to like thin s to stay The tendency to want to finish a iven relatively the same and be reluctant to unit of tasks or items. The individual any chan e. The current baseline (or perceives the standard su ested amount status quo) is taken as a reference point, of consumption to be appropriate and will and any chan e from that baseline is want to consume it all even if it’s too perceived as a loss. much. This applied to food portions, finishin a movie even if it’s bad, etc.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Authority bias
The tendency to attribute reater Decision-making accuracy to the opinion of an authority & behavior fi ure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion. These biases a ect people's decision-makin abilities, behaviour and the decisions they make based on the di erent information they et.
DECISION-MAKING & BEHAVIOR
Automation bias Bandwagon effect
The tendency for humans to favor The tendency to do (or believe) thin s su estions from automated because many other people already do (or decision-makin systems and to i nore believe) the same. The bandwa on e ect contradictory information made without is characterized by the probability of automation, even if it this information was individual adoption increasin with in fact correct. respect to the proportion who have already done so.
THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Confirmation bias Curse of knowledge
The tendency to search for, interpret, When better-informed people find it focus on and remember information in a extremely di cult to think about way that confirms one's preconceptions. problems from the perspective of lesser-informed people. Those better-informed people unknowin ly assume that the others have the back round to understand.
THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Hyperbolic discounting Law of the instrument
The tendency for people to have a An over-reliance on a familiar tool or stron er preference for more immediate methods, i norin or under-valuin payo s relative to later payo s. When alternative approaches. "If all you have is a faced with a choice between two rewards, hammer, everythin looks like a nail." the people will prefer the immediate reward even if it’s lower than a reward that will come in the future.
THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Pro-innovation bias Rhyme as reason effect
The tendency to have an excessive The tendency to perceive rhymin as optimism towards an invention or more truthful. For example, “an apple a innovation's usefulness throu hout day keeps the doctor away”. society, while often failin to identify its limitations and weaknesses.
THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Fear of Missing out
The fear experienced by individuals when Thinking & problem faced with the thou ht that they mi ht miss out on a social occasion, a new solving experience, a profitable investment or a satisfyin event. This social anxiety is These biases can chan e the way people characterized by a desire to stay think or solve problems and lead them to continually connected with what others come up with wron conclusions.. are doin .
THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Information bias Pareidolia
The tendency to seek information even The tendency to interpret a va ue (and when it cannot a ect action. People tend random) stimulus as somethin known to to believe that the more information that the observer and si nificant, e. ., seein can be acquired to make a decision, the ima es of animals or faces in clouds, the better, even if that extra information is man in the moon, and hearin irrelevant for the decision. non-existent hidden messa es on records played in reverse.
MEMORIES & RECALLING MEMORIES & RECALLING
Bizarreness effect Context effect
Bizarre material is better remembered That co nition and memory are than common material. dependent on context. Out-of-context memories are more di cult to retrieve than in-context memories (e. ., recall time and accuracy for a work-related memory will be lower at home, and vice versa).
MEMORIES & RECALLING MEMORIES & RECALLING
Google effect Humor effect
The tendency to for et information that Humorous items are more easily can be found readily online by usin remembered than non-humorous ones. Internet search en ines.
MEMORIES & RECALLING MEMORIES & RECALLING
Picture superiority Primacy effect effect Items near the end of a sequence are the Concepts that are learned by viewin easiest to recall, followed by the items at pictures are more easily and frequently the be innin of a sequence; items in the recalled than are concepts that are middle are the least likely to be learned by viewin their written word form remembered. counterparts.
MEMORIES & RECALLING MEMORIES & RECALLING
Spacing Effect Verbatim effect
Information is better recalled if exposure The " ist" of what someone has said is to it is repeated over a lon span of time better remembered than the verbatim rather than a short one. For study lessons wordin . This is because memories are for instance, this e ect shows that you will representations, not exact copies. remember more when you space out your study then crammin last minute for a test the ni ht before.
MEMORIES & RECALLING MEMORIES & RECALLING
Restorff (isolation) effect Memories An item that sticks out is more likely to be remembered than other items. & recalling
These biases can influence choices by either enhancin or impairin the recall of a memory or alterin the content of a reported memory.
MEMORIES & RECALLING
Blind spot bias Congruence bias
The tendency to see oneself as less The tendency to test hypotheses biased than other people, or to be able to exclusively throu h direct testin , instead identify more co nitive biases in others of testin possible alternative hypotheses. than in oneself. In an experiment, a subject will test their own usually naive hypothesis a ain and a ain instead of tryin to disprove it.
INTERVIEW & USER TESTING INTERVIEW & USER TESTING
Courtesy bias Hindsight bias
The tendency to ive an opinion that is The tendency for people to perceive more socially correct than one's true events that have already occurred as opinion, so as to avoid o endin anyone. havin been more predictable than they actually were before the events took place (also known as the knew-it-all-alon phenomenon).
INTERVIEW & USER TESTING INTERVIEW & USER TESTING
Illusion of validity Negativity bias
The tendency for people to overestimate Psycholo ical phenomenon by which their ability to interpret and predict humans have a reater recall of accurately the outcome when analyzin a unpleasant memories compared with set of data, in particular when the data positive memories. analyzed show a very consistent pattern—that is, when the data "tell" a coherent story.
INTERVIEW & USER TESTING INTERVIEW & USER TESTING
Observer-expectancy Stereotyping effect Expectin a member of a roup to have certain characteristics without havin When a researcher expects a iven result actual information about that individual. and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it.
INTERVIEW & USER TESTING INTERVIEW & USER TESTING
Peak-end rule Interview & The tendency for people to jud e an experience lar ely based on how they felt user testing at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total These biases can directly influence sum or avera e of every moment of the desi ner, durin interviews or user testin , experience. The e ect occurs re ardless and may chan e the outcome of our of whether the experience is pleasant or research. They influence the behaviour of unpleasant. people we interview or people who will test your products and services.
INTERVIEW & USER TESTING
Dunning–Kruger effect Framing effect
The tendency for unskilled individuals to The tendency to draw di erent overestimate their own ability and the conclusions from the same information, tendency for experts to underestimate dependin on how that information is their own ability. presented and who presented it.
TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS
"Not invented here" NIH Planning fallacy
Aversion to contact with or use of already The tendency to underestimate existin products, research, standards, or task-completion time, re ardless of the knowled e developed outside a roup individual's knowled e that past tasks of a because of their external ori ins and similar nature have taken lon er to costs, such as royalties. Research complete than enerally planned. The illustrates a stron bias a ainst ideas from bias only a ects predictions about one's the outside. own tasks.
TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS
Reactance Reactive devaluation
The ur e to do the opposite of what The tendency to devalue proposals only someone wants people to do out of a because they purportedly ori inated with need to resist a perceived attempt to an adversary or anta onist. constrain their freedom of choice or limit their ran e of alternatives.
TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS
Group attribution error Self-serving bias
The tendency to believe either that the The tendency to claim more responsibility characteristics of an individual roup for successes than failures. Individuals member are reflective of the roup as a attribute successes to internal causes and whole, or that a roup's decision outcome failures to external causes. must reflect the preferences of individual roup members, even when external information is available su estin otherwise.
TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS
System justification Cheerleader effect
The tendency to defend and bolster the The tendency for people to appear more status quo. Existin social, economic, and attractive in a roup than in isolation. political arran ements tend to be preferred, and alternatives dispara ed, sometimes even at the expense of individual and collective self-interest.
TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS TEAM WORK, SOCIAL & MEETINGS
Team work, social & meetings
These biases can chan e the way roups of people work collectively and interact with each other, whether in a meetin room or in their daily lives in eneral.