Weekends are great. They provide me with the opportunity to end my slumber with a period of “restful alertness” where I can lie still in my bed and just think about things. It is during this time that I oftentimes ponder unusual concepts or have thoughtful breakthroughs.
This morning I started thinking about good and evil. First, I asked the question: “what is evil?” After some mental handwringing, I ultimately settled on this definition: “an action which creates harm.” As you would guess, the next question then became, “so what is good?” My thought: “an action which creates benefit.”
Scenarios began to play out in my mind and I began to categorize them… evil, good, evil, evil, good, good.
And then pause…
The classical ethical scenario: A mom steals from a store to give food to her starving children. Hmm… evil and good.
My pondering continued – how is an action ultimately characterized if it both harms and helps?
A matter of scale.
Wait. Simple cost-benefit analysis.
Flashes back to Economics 101 and a hauntingly memorable statement from the professor: ”If the cost outweighs the benefits, DO IT!”
The connection to the world of user experience was immediate.
All actions that a user takes are predicated on the outcome of a simple cost-benefit evaluation.
If the perceived benefits of doing this will outweigh the perceived costs, I should do it. As users, we are always making conscious (and many more subconscious) decisions about what we should do next. As such, I’m reminded that when designing interactions, this singular question, this focused lens, is a good one to use to evaluate the experience an interaction will yield.
Luckily, there are so many levers that can be pulled to adjust an interaction and make the outcome a positive one for the user:
- Reduce the costs: Simplify the interaction or speed it up. This can be accomplished by improving the design (more intuitive), reducing steps, increasing processing speed, etc.
- Increase the benefits: Improve the outcome (or even just the perception of the outcome) and make sure your user understands this payoff exists.
- Make the interaction engaging: Far from smoke-and-mirrors, simple improvements to the aesthetics and enjoyability (fun) of the interaction itself helps the user obtain benefit prior to the ultimate payoff.
After I rolled out of bed, I immediately Googled up “Benefits Costs Interactions,” and of course, found that (as expected) I didn’t just have an interaction design breakthrough – this is a well-documented concept. In fact, it is a concept that I know I’ve studied before which just had the misfortune of becoming buried in the mental clutter.
Regardless, I did applaud my brain (yes, I treat it as a third-person muse) for reminding me of such a simple concept and the importance it has when we design interactions.