Types of biases in design
We all know about the prejudice humans make about each other, any place or an object. This behavior is carved in our nature from our childhood as our parents tell us to be cautious, to be aware of our surroundings. This is not a new thing, it is in our genes to judge something for our own safety. As we grow we realize that not everything is supposed to be the way we think and make the perception about. This is called “Bias” in design.
As a designer we need to focus on the goal to connect with the user without getting affected with any of the factors of our mind or someone else’s thoughts. Therefore, Bias becomes a negative factor. Having your own perception can unconsciously divert the decision and we’ll deflect from the user centered design goal.
There are Six main types of Biases in Design, which we meet in the design research(or fundamental research) which drive our product idea and development.
Here I have tried explaining these points with an example you might have seen or felt in your life. Let’s see what these biases are…
Recency Bias —
This is a type of Bias which happens when we see a lot of things together but are able to memorize or remember only the latest of the objects or places. Like when you go to a zoo you start from one section of the pandas and going through all the places and animals you see some koalas while going out. After you return home you will have the detailed memory of the koalas, their habitat, the section the place, compared to any other section or animal.
Primacy Bias —
This type of bias happens when we as the humans tend to remember only the things that are seen at the beginning of a sequence or list. Like sometimes when we read something and later when we try to remember what was written we will be able to tell the things from the first paragraph, line by line. But we forget or don’t exactly remember what was further in the reading. This is because sometimes we lose attention or focus as we move further through the work.
“The Primacy and Recency Biases work together in a way where if we see a sequence of objects we tend to remember the first and the last of the objects more clearly than the objects or data that fall in the middle.”
Sunk Cost Fallacy —
You might see yourself in a position where you start off with some work and you keep doing it, thinking that it might bring the result you have thought or planned out in your mind. The point is, as we move through the work our mind is more confirmed and confident that there is an achievable result.
But the truth is that the more time, money or any other resources we invest in the something, the more confirmed we are about the result, this is called sunk cost fallacy.
In UX Design this type of bias is very harmful to the product as well as the business. It happens that sometimes the conclusion is that the product or idea won’t work and we think that we have invested ourselves so much that we cannot move on to something different.
what helps here is how you understand the situation that the whole thing is about the mutual growth of the user and the business and not about the product.
Confirmation Bias —
This type of bias occurs when you already have a hypothesis in your mind and you start looking for the audience or users which agree with the hypothesis you have. for example — when people discuss about certain topics like about a political party they ask questions such that the answers agree with them( leading questions).
The best thing that can be done as a UX Researcher to sort situation of confirmation bias out is asking questions which are open ended. Actively listening to the users or the participants in the usability testing or during the foundational or design research.
False Consensus Bias —
This is when we overestimate the number of people (consensus) who will agree with your idea or hypothesis. For example — you like a particular cuisine or kind of animal and you think that majority of the population has the taste similar to you or people like the animal you like. That is a very basic example of false consensus bias.
As a design researcher you need to think about the hypothesis or the idea clearly and survey a large group of people to understand better and clear of the narrow perspective which may fall in your idea initially.
Implicit Bias —
This is also known as unconscious bias because sometimes people say or ask other people about something not knowing that it may be a bad gesture towards the other person. It is people may not be aware of the culture or how they behave with each other in their community. The stereotype we associate to people without our conscious knowledge.
For example- it may have happened to you that you enter a shop and ask another customer about the items, thinking that he/she is an employee there. Or you may have thought that the person from a particular community is into something dangerous/ illegal so you judge a person by his color/creed/culture/sex or any other criteria without knowing about him.
we can avoid this bias by asking the participants of the research to tell a little about themselves, building a good rapport and avoiding the words or sentences which may hurt the sentiments of the participants and users involved.
