UX and Psychology III — Pavlov your user
A while ago, Ivan Pavlov trained his dogs to associate mealtime with the ring of a bell. He soon found that every time he rang the bell, regardless of whether or not he presented the dogs with any food, they would start drooling with anticipation.
Nowadays, they say that every time you receive a notification, your body releases a lil bit of dopamine- the happy hormone. Which is like saying that social media is Pavloving us.
Now that isn’t entirely untrue. I mean who doesn’t want 500 likes on Instagram.
But it isn’t completely accurate either. Because that would entail that all notifications are highly anticipated. They aren’t. Some are plain annoying. They’re repetitive, spammy and unhelpful.
Conversely, others are so smart. They help the user by providing them with the right kind of message at the right time. Think about Google Maps as an example. It alerts you on the status of traffic around you often exactly when you need it.
It’s rewarding. And that’s exactly what good UX should be. A reward to the user. It’s how you Pavlov them into liking your product.
In fact, for reference, here are a bunch of ways in which a notification can Pavlov a user and make their bodies release dopamine: