Heuristics: User Experience or Behavioral Economics?
Which are the differences and similarities between User Experience and Behavioral Economics heuristics?
Daniel Kahneman is a scientist who has dedicated his life to studying people’s behavior. Kahneman’s Dual System is one of the foundations of Behavioral Economics and made him earned the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for it. Along with other researchers and colleagues (such as Amos Tversky and Richard Thaler, who are also references in the area nowadays) he developed researches that, without a shadow of a doubt, made him deserve this award. Currently, Kahneman is one of the most referenced authors in economic papers around the world, even though he started his life studying psychology.
The Dual system is also known as “fast and slow systems” (or simply, system 1 and system 2). System 2 is what we normally link with classical economics, since this would be the system used by “homo economicus”. It is based on a slow process, which evaluates all the alternatives, analyzes and weighs all the variables, to make an optimal decision in all situations. System 1, on the other hand, is the lazy system, which is constantly looking for ways to reduce the workload when making decisions, relating previous choice patterns with new situations, and making decisions in an (almost) automatic way, with focus on the context. In other words, while system 2 is in the realm of reason, system 1 is in the realm of heuristics.
Jakob Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics
When I started working with UX design (at the time I was an “interface designer”), one of the first usability analysis techniques I got to know was Nielsen’s Heuristics. At that time, I understood the word “heuristic” almost as a synonym for “good practices”. That’s because the “heuristics” was a list of 10 items, which were “tips” on how to check some user experience criteria in an interface or system. Things like: feedback, visibility, speaking the user’s language, providing clear outputs and indicating the existence of shortcuts. When I started teaching UX classes, and I went deeper into the subject, I discovered some other interface heuristics (such as Rosenfeld’s), however, the technique I saw more articles and discussions about was the Nielsen Heuristic Evaluation.
This evaluation method caught my attention especially because of the process that defines a level of severity for the problems identified. Nielsen based this index on the relationship of 3 factors (impact, recurrence and persistence) and results in 4 levels of usability problem severity: cosmetic, small, large and usability catastrophe. The heuristics on Nielsen’s work are usability principles.
But do these “Heuristics” of Nielsen have any relationship with the “heuristics” that dominate the Kahneman’s System 1?
Heuristics as a mental model
After almost 10 years working with UX, when I started to study Behavioral Economics, the word heuristic presented itself with a new meaning: automatism or mental model. At this context, heuristics are unconscious principles used by System 1 (fast) to make decisions. They are mental shortcuts that have been around human behavior for a long time (probably even before we realized ourselves as human beings).
Some examples of the most popular heuristics are availability, representativeness and anchoring, however, there are currently several studies analyzing and identifying other heuristics. Our subconscious defines which decisions are not worthy focus and attention of the costly System 2, and uses heuristics to make the decision. These shortcuts create behaviour “routines”, generating a something like an “unconscious and automatic algorithm” used by our brain to decide. The existence of this more efficient method of decision-making makes perfect sense in an evolutionary context, as System 2 requires much more brain activity than System 1, and consequently more energy.
System 1 was a determining factor for the existence of the human race. Our brain was shaped for tens of thousands of years to optimize its processing, and nowadays over 90% of our every day decisions are made by the System 1. We must consider that neurons need much more energy than a normal cell. The brain represents on average 5% of the body’s weight, but consumes 20% of all the energy we eat and produce. Thus, using System 2 unnecessarily could represent a waste of a valuable energy, that could be missed later.
And there is more, the heuristics have a behavioral effect that affects all human beings: the biases. Kahneman revolutionized research in economics with the study of biases, demonstrating that human behavior could be much better described based on heuristics and biases than with classical economics, homo economicus and utility theory. Behavioral Economics has provided tools and techniques to understand: when we feel loss aversion or endowment effect; how the confirmation bias or the herd effect works; why we are affected by the present bias and the status quo bias. The result of Kahneman’s work can be found in the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, the study for which he received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.
While heuristics optimize the energy use of our neurons, biases shape our society, the way we interact and make the vast majority of our decisions on a daily basis. Considering that the initial objective of System 1 using heuristics is to reduce the “need to think” in order to make a decision, we were able to establish a direct relationship with the Nielsen Heuristic Evaluation, as they indicate to the evaluator what to observe, in an objective and orderly way, optimizing its analysis and making the process less costly cognitively. However, Kahneman’s heuristics are much more than “usability principles” as Nielsen’s back in the early 1990s.
Obviously this subject is very broad (and passionate). Entering into the “realm of heuristics” is like receiving a new toolbox, especially for a UX professional who has been looking for the best ways to understand and analyze human behavior for a long time. After all, what I once understood as a synonym for “good practices”, is also a key factor for human evolution, and decisive in the construction and maintanance of our behaviors and our social relationships.
Thanks for reading!
Please, let me know if you have any comment or question. ;)
You can find a Brazilian Portuguese version of this article here!
