How to Use Behavioral Psychology to Boost Conversions For Web Applications

Simply speaking, behavioral psychology, or behaviorism, is the study of the connection between our behavior and mind. Rather than our internal thoughts and emotions, behavioral psychology focuses on studying and understanding our external actions and responses and concludes why we do what we do. Even though it might sound unlikely, behavioral psychology in web design is highly effective in changing your web application’s performance in the long run.

The internet, or the digital world, is changing drastically, and the software and web application industry is highly influenced by ever-changing customer demand. Understanding customer behavior toward a web application helps organizations create a human-centered design for web apps, which ensures enhanced user experience. In this article, we will discuss the importance of understanding user behavior and patterns, how they affect decision-making, and how you can use behavioral psychology to boost conversions for web applications.

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Understanding User Behavior

Behavioral Psychology Basics

Behavioral psychology is based on the notion that all human conditions can be explained by conditioning based on their interaction in a given environment. The key principle of behaviorism is interpreted by two types of conditioning: classical and operant.

Classical Conditioning - involves learning about one’s behavior by stimulation, which is not naturally associated with one’s behavior.

Operant Conditioning - involves developing a behavior that is reinforced or punished based on its consequences.

As part of behavioral psychology, understanding the human decision-making process is vital. The process can be broken down into several stages, such as recognizing or defining the problem, information research, evaluating the options, comparing the consequences, and making a decision based on user behavior analysis.

Another aspect that influences user behavior is psychological triggers, which can be activated by tapping on human emotions. Understanding the target audience, finding elements for psychological triggers in UX based on their age, culture, and personal preferences, and using their behavior patterns can allow UX designers to tailor a more engaging web application.

Identifying User Needs

To understand your users’ needs, you must perform surveys and use questionnaires to collect and analyze necessary data. Based on the data analysis, create fictional user personas to better understand the users' characteristics, needs, and goals. The next step is understanding what drives the users to use the web application and then identifying the pain points that users may encounter when interacting with the web apps. Organizations can also continuously monitor user behavioral patterns and improve their experience using these neuromarketing strategies and behavioral analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, Heap, FullStory, Hotjar, etc.

Designing for Engagement

Effective web design requires some principles, including creating a visually appealing and user-friendly application that users can easily navigate through. Keeping the design simple and clear makes the web app understandable and accessible to all types of users. Moreover, keeping it simple and consistent improves the website’s load time and usability and helps with customer journey optimization.

The elements should be organized in order of importance by creating a visual hierarchy. Pay attention to the focal point, which directs visitors to the most important information. Also, remember that colors play a vital role in evoking emotions and influencing users’ actions. The colors also represent your brands. However, it is best to choose complementary colors and keep them limited to 5. The web application should also be easily negotiable so that users can quickly find what they are looking for.

Developers need to implement persuasive design techniques to guide users to their desired actions. One study shows that the use of such web app design in primary healthcare electronic records has improved 64% healthier eating, 32% medication adherence and 40% mental health and well-being, 47% physical activity, etc.

Such techniques involve using social proof as it encourages people to follow what others do. Scarcity and urgency are used in web design to show that the less is, the more, creating a sense of authority and credibility to let people know that the web app is reliable. Organizations can offer the reciprocity principle by offering something valuable for free for user retention, increasing engagement, and building trust.

Optimizing User Experience

Personalizing web applications means offering a custom user experience. Applying behavioral science for web apps, applications will make personalized product recommendations and deliver dynamic content in real time. The application can also divide the users into various segments based on their behavior and actions.

Another way to optimize user experience is gamification or adding game elements to the web design to keep users engaged and give them a unique experience. Based on one Localytics data, brands that use gamification on their websites have seen a 22% customer retention rate. Making the tasks enjoyable and offering rewards and incentives is another way to earn customer loyalty and increase engagement. Some gamification web apps examples are Duolingo, Fitbit, Habitica, Target, etc.

Developers or companies can also implement A/B testing psychological principles and iteration. These tests include hypothesis testing, where you create and test specific metrics for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). There are also split testing methods, which means testing various web app versions to see which works best. After analyzing the results, you can make iterative movements and keep testing the ongoing process for continuous improvement.

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Reducing Friction Points

Simplifying Processes

Users don’t like websites that take lots of time to load, don’t offer a clear visual, and are challenging to navigate. To eliminate the problems, designers, and developers must reduce the website’s friction points and streamline workflows. Compressing file or image sizes, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing server requests can help optimize loading. Moreover, using compelling language and offering an eye-catching visualization for CTA (call-to-action) will attract users to take action.

Long and complicated forms are one of the common reasons for users to abandon an action midway. That is why it is vital to focus on functions over forms by reducing input fields. For example, if you are asking visitors to sign up, ask only for necessary information rather than personal or irrelevant information and options for users to click rather than type. Make your website easily navigable by adding various navigation features, such as Top Head, Subnavigation, Side Navigation, etc. You can also add tab bars, dropdown menus, and file trees to help users navigate the website.

Building Trust and Security

According to Forbes, 88% of online users don’t return to a website after they have a bad experience. Furthermore, 98% of websites are prone to various cyber security attacks, making it necessary to implement high security to build trust and credibility with web users. Implementing end-to-end encryption, clear privacy policies, secure transactions, and displaying trust badges and seals by reputed security providers are some of the most effective ways to offer data protection. Keep the users updated in real time regarding data updates and changes to maintain transparent communication.

Enhancing User Motivation

Using emotional design in web apps is essential for evoking positive user emotion and creating connection. One of the great elements to such design is offering an engaging visual with attractive graphics and storytelling in UX by using real life scenarios. A compelling narrative and relatable contents stir motivation and user behavior and empathy.

However, to ensure continuous motivation and increase user engagement, it is necessary to allow users to participate and contribute. Gathering real-time feedback is an effective process. Features like in-app feedback forms and ratings, as well as live chat. If you want to collect feedback from a border audience, using polls and surveys are the best ways. Analyzing the collected feedback provides insights into customers' needs, demands, the latest market trends, and the usability of certain features. This is also beneficial in implementing product iterations and increasing user satisfaction.

Analyzing Success Metrics

Key Performance Indicators

Measuring web app success and effectiveness requires KPIs or (Key Performance Indicators) metrics. These metrics help gain valuable insights regarding website performance, audience engagements, bounce rates, customer lifetime value, and ROI. But how do these metrics influence web performance?

Conversion rates - It calculates the percentage of people from your marketing campaign who take action.

User engagement metrics - It measures the percentage of people who take action actively or frequently interact with the website.

Bounce rates - It represents the percentage of users who left the website after viewing the first web page.

Customer lifetime value - Customer lifetime value or CLV indicates the possible revenue the website will generate from a single customer throughout their business relationship.

ROI calculation - ROI is the profit measured by dividing the total investment by the cost of the investment.

Data-Driven Decisions

Organizations should continue collecting quality data and improving their websites to earn customer loyalty. Data collection is one of the vital elements for effective data-driven decisions. Using analytics tools in various analysis stages allows organizations to gain user behavior insights and identify bottlenecks. Another strategy includes collecting actionable data or customer feedback for other platforms and optimizing it as web page content. Maintaining this cycle ensures continuous web app improvement and enhanced performance.

Summary

Behavior psychology is crucial and yet vital for web app design. However, using behavioral psychology requires understanding users’ needs, identifying and analyzing behavioral patterns, and designing the web app with simplicity while ensuring its visual appeal. Offering personalized content and recommendations, reducing load time, and keeping users engaged through gamification are also necessary for effective customer retention.

Using the right strategies not only boosts your web app performance but it can also create reliability and credibility. Collect and analyze feedback to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement. This can easily boost conversations of your web app and keep you ahead in the digital landscape.