Cognitive Structure: Humans naturally avoid complicated or confusing interfaces. If all headlines in a newspaper are the same size as the body text, they won’t seem inviting to read. The human brain is built to operate efficiently. However, human cognitive abilities often don’t reach their full potential. Any interface that goes against this instinct is likely to fail. No one enjoys taking tests every day, right? To increase sales in an online shopping mall, it’s important to provide an interface that requires minimal mental effort from consumers. To protect the environment, instead of setting “spoons or forks” as the default delivery option in a food delivery app, offering a choice to select separately can help reduce waste. To promote positive consumer behavior, create a comfortable environment; to discourage negative behavior, make the process complex and frustrating. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
One of the most common misconceptions is that people mistake cause and effect as interchangeable. A cause is often seen as an effect, or an effect is mistaken for a cause. The most well-known phenomenon demonstrating this is the halo effect — a situation where specific characteristics of an object influence how we judge other traits. For example, you might like that person’s character because you like one of their qualities, not because you like the person as a whole. This misunderstanding is a common causal error. If you like someone, you tend to think everything about them is good; if you don’t like someone, you might overlook or dislike everything about them. It’s not that you dislike the person for one reason and like them for another—it’s simply how the human heart works. Gaining someone’s favor, therefore, can be an arduous and painful process. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”