KISSing is critical to product adoption

How many Apps do you have on your phone right now? And about how many of those do you use daily? If you’re like most of us, the ratio is likely to be about 25%. The apps that have become intertwined in our daily lives are the ones where the benefit to us greatly exceeds the effort required to use it. It’s a simple equation, right?

However, a large cohort of Apps (as with many technologies) are stuck in the ‘intention-action gap’ zone — the graveyard of viable solutions that just never made it. They were downloaded with a rush of enthusiasm when users were full of lofty intentions and lashings of intrigue. The user may have interacted with these apps once or twice, but ultimately these apps were relegated to the dusty graveyard of unloved, and unused, technology. Perhaps the user found it too effortful, or the onboarding process was clunky, it didn’t deliver what was needed, or it failed to live up to the hype — whatever the reason, in each case the relationship between benefit and effort was not adequately skewed in favour of the user.

Benefit > Effort = User Adoption

It’s such a straightforward equation and yet many entrepreneurs are myopically focused on the benefits offered by their solution without paying much attention to the effort required of their users to get to the benefit each time! Looking towards cognitive psychology helps us understand common human fallacies that can help us build better tech.

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes like perception, memory or problem solving. Broadly put, cognitive psychology deals with how our brains work, and uncovering the implications of that knowledge.

In psychology, cognitive load describes the mental effort that’s required to process and learn new information, and working memory refers to the limited capacity of our cognition system to process the inputs around us. Essentially, working memory holds the key to the castle and it is very selective about what it lets through the gates. Scientists claim that we can hold up between 5 and 9 elements in our short term memory at any one time (referred to as Millers Law) and we have a limited ability to retain that information. With a guesstimate of about 30 seconds recall for an average of 4 items, how on earth do we survive in this noisy world?

What does this mean for product design? Well, we can’t increase the actual processing power of humans (yet!), but we can minimize the information we pass to the working memory and structure it to optimize the potential for writing to long term memory (which, thankfully, is unlimited)

Optimizing for the human brain

The trifecta of mental load

• Intrinsic cognitive load refers to the complexity of the subject or task itself. Think of it as the difference between learning to add integers, compared to advanced algebra — one is inherently more difficult than the other. We can’t reduce intrinsic load but we can optimize how it is presented to the user, using ‘chunking’ — the process of feeding the user bitesize chunks of data to process in stages.
• Extraneous cognitive load is the unnecessary ‘noise’ added to the information intake process that can prevent learning and distract the user — things like poor screen layout, complex language, clashing colour schemes, and confusing messaging. Our natural tendency is to add features and flashing images when we want to stand out — however subtraction is the name of the game when you want your user to focus on a core message.
• Germane cognitive load relates to what we may already know about the subject matter or the task in front of us. Think of the way instinctive way we know how to use a phone, or share a link with someone — over time we build schemas that help us quickly interpret inputs. These ‘mental coathooks’ can be cues such as icons, words, bullet points — anything that helps the brain organise the information and pass it to the long term memory. When optimizing for germane load think about the existing schema (or behaviours) your user has already built, and use this information to guide how you craft your messaging.

Essentially, we need to MANAGE intrinsic load, MINIMIZE extraneous load, and MAXIMISE germane load.

The part that we can easily tackle is the extraneous cognitive load. This is the cognitive load that is, basically, the result of bad design. Our goal should be to minimise it as much as possible. Some basic principles to follow are:

1. Break complex tasks into smaller steps

Use chunking to ensure your user doesn’t become overwhelmed by information all at once. Build self efficacy by helping users feel competent and in control.

2. Eliminate non-essential details and distractions

While it’s tempting to want to empower your user with all the information you believe they need to use your product successfully — challenge yourself to reduce the the amount of work your user needs to do when landing on your website, using your app, or getting started with a new product.

3. Avoid visual clutter

Steer away from the desire to create the ‘wow’ effect. Visual design inconsistencies can confuse the user and make it difficult to distinguish what’s important, and what the next steps are. Design should always be cohesive and clear.

In a nutshell — KISS [Keep it Sesame Simple]

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