Simple Psych for Complex Marketers

This blog post is part of a series on how to use what we know about the human mind and its penchant for simplicity to make our marketing better, our designs more pleasant, and our lives simpler. If you’re coming across this series for the first time, you may also want to check out the rest of the content by clicking here.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

Quite a quote from a guy who spent his days ripping through incredibly complex subjects, huh? In this post, we'll see just how much sense that makes in the age of information.

The study of human psychology and how we interact with the internet has become a hugely valuable and important field for marketers and their brands. Time and time again, we've learned that one characteristic is shared by every successful experience on the internet: Simplicity.

But first, a history lesson: How Google ended Yahoo's reign.

The year is 1999. TLC's "No Scrubs" is blasting on the radio in your Toyota Camry. You pass a billboard featuring the Matrix on your way into work where you'll be using a Dell Inspiron 7000, the hottest tech on the market (Source).

Yahoo has been the biggest player on the internet for about 3 years. Google has just released a press release on the launch of their search engine.

Now, take a look at these two screenshots of Google and Yahoo's homepages from October 12th, 1999, back when the internet was just picking up. Try to imagine that it's the first time you're coming across both of these pages.

Yahoo, 1999:

Google, 1999:

Both screenshots were found using The Wayback Machine



Which one seems more inviting to use? Does one page overwhelm the senses more than the other?

Google understood the value of simplicity on the internet in a period when the industry was working to show off as many of their capabilities at any given moment. And users (obviously) noticed. Larry Page and crew were able to pick up on a famous notion of User Experience design called the gulf of execution originally coined by Don Norman, one of the pioneers in the field.

Understanding and reducing the gulf of execution

Consider that every time you interact with an app or a website (the user interface), you have a goal you'd like to achieve. Even if you're mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds, you have a goal. Generally, that goal is to see what your friends are up to. We know this to be true because when your path to your goal is interrupted, perhaps by an ad, perhaps by weak cell service, you're unhappy.

The gulf of execution is the gap between the user's goal and the user's means to achieve that goal. In the glossary of the internet, the aforementioned 'means' are pretty much synonymous with user interface.

Google took this concept to heart from day 1 and put simplicity and usability at the forefront of its product. This isn't the only theory in academia that can positively impact your business. Hick's Law goes hand-in-hand with this thinking.

Hick's Law means you need to slim down the options

"Hick’s Law is a simple idea that says that the more choices you present your users with, the longer it will take them to reach a decision." - The Interaction Design Foundation

(Source)

This is an interesting concept in the current world of digital marketing. We're constantly working to get users' attentions. And once we have it, we try really hard to provide value to the point that a visitor becomes a lead, and a lead becomes a customer, and a customer becomes a brand promoter. That's the funnel.

So, what's up with this whole notion of eliminating choice? Don't we want our users to be able to walk down whatever path they choose?

Yes, but it's our job, as designers who care about our audiences, to show them what we think is the best path. In fact, it's my opinion that respecting a new user's time by getting them from point A to B is much more valuable than showing them every possible path. The trick is designing point B so that it can still introduce all the other interesting paths for the user.

This is great news for the busy digital marketer

No longer should you offer every option in your nav bar. No longer should you flesh out every detail of every offer. In fact, this theory flows into other areas of the digital marketer's world. Mailchimp sought out to find if the perfect email template exists based on data, and learned some other interesting notions, like the fact that fewer words per image denotes a higher click rate in email marketing.

So, if done correctly, we're looking at much less work in a lot of spaces. But beware - While there's perhaps less content on the landing page of your offer, that content must be even more thoughtful to succinctly and quickly lead your user to their goal.

With all of this in mind, let's talk about actionable ways to bump up the simplicity in our web design and digital marketing efforts.

4 ways to simplify your UX and Web Design

Clearly define one goal per webpage. That's it. This single trick will streamline your design efforts and your users' experiences immensely. It also allows you to be crystal clear on what that webpage's function is and how you can measure its effectiveness. Simplify your site's navigation. Cognitive scientists say that you should never present more than 5±2 parent menu options in your nav bar, because that coincides with the number of items the average human can maintain in their short term memory. It allows for users to more easily create a cognitive map of your site. Always allow for users to leave the way they came in. Just as in entering a house and not being able to find the door again, you never want to disorient your visitors. Breadcrumb Links solve this problem well. Consistency is key. Define your style early and thoroughly and maintain similarity on every page, whether it's in style and structure. Design for the human eye's scanning pattern. The average internet user often scans web pages in the shape of an "F" or a "Z" pattern. (Source)

Concluding thoughts:

I think Einstein was onto something when he said that things should be made as simple as possible. We explored that today by digging into Google's past and the leading theories of successful user experience design.

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