UX Design

Different Kinds of Bias in UX Design

Bias:

In short , a bias is favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information. It’s like making up your mind about someone before you’ve really gotten to know them

Different Kinds of Bias:

  • Confirmation Bias
  • False Consensus Bias
  • Recency Bias
  • Primacy Bias
  • Implicit Bias(Unconscious Bias)

Confirmation Bias:

This bias occurs when you start looking for evidence to prove a hypothesis you have, because you think you already have the answer. You’re drawn to information that confirms your beliefs and preconceptions. 

How To Avoid confirmation bias:

  • Ask open-ended questions when conducting interviews. An open-ended question lets the person being interviewed answer freely instead of with a yes or no.
  • Include a large sample of users make sure you’re not just looking for a small group of people who fit your preconceived ideas you want to have a big sample of users with diverse perspectives

False Consensus Bias:

Assumption that others will think the same way as you do.

In UX research the false consensus bias happens, when we overestimate the number of people who will agree with our idea or design which creates a false consensus.

Avoid false consensus bias:

  • Identifying and articulating your assumptions. For example, you might live in a community that often identifies with certain political beliefs. When you meet a new person you might assume they share your political beliefs because you both live in the same town. But that isn’t necessarily true.
  • Survey large groups of people

Recency Bias:

It’s easiest to remember the last thing you heard in an interview conversation or similar setting because it’s the most recent.

To avoid the recency bias:

  • Take detailed notes or recordings for each interview or conversation you have. This way you can review what people said at the start of the conversation.
  • Interview each participant in the same way consistency makes it easier to compare and contrast over time and consistency, makes it more likely that you remember the unusual and important moments that happen throughout your research.

Primacy Bias:

Where you remember the first participant most strongly. Sometimes the first person you meet makes the strongest impression because you’re in a new situation or having a new experience the primacy bias like the recency bias

Avoid primacy bias:

  • Take detailed notes or recordings so you can review everything.
  • Interview each participant in the same way. Consistency makes it easier to compare and contrast over time, and consistency makes it more likely that you remember the unusual and important moments that happen throughout your research.

Implicit Bias(Unconscious Bias):

Implicit bias is a collection of attitudes and stereotypes we associate to people without our conscious knowledge. 

One of the most common forms of implicit bias in ux is when we only interview people within a limited set of identity profiles, such as race age, gender socioeconomic status and ability. 

These profiles are generally based on assumptions we have about certain types of people.

To avoid implicit bias:

  • We can reflect on our behaviors
  • We can ask others to point out our implicit biases.

Sunk Cost Fallacy:

This is the idea that the deeper we get into a project we’ve invested in, the harder it is to change course without feeling like we failed or wasted time.
The sunk cost fallacy comes into play when working on a design you might have invested hours into designing a new feature, but then learned that the feature doesn’t really address a user problem. It’s easy to keep working on a design that you’ve invested time into. but ultimately you need to focus on work that positively impacts users. 

To avoid the sunk cost fallacy:

  • Break down your project into smaller phases
  • Outline designated points where you can decide whether to continue or stop.

Check out my behnace or my portfolio for examples.