The payoff of leveraging existing product user’s knowledge is smoother interactions, faster adoption rates, and better overall usability. People know how your product works before you even design it. Let’s look at a mental model approach to design to surprise your consumers.

A mental model is based on belief, not facts. It is a model of what users know, or rather think they know about how a system works.

What is the mental model?

Developers want to bring new and exciting designs to consumers. However, consumers judge new ideas of tools they already know how to use. 

When approached with a new product, a human brain will develop a mental model of how it will function. Such as a website or app. 

People will transfer expectations around a familiar group of products to one that appears similar. 

For example, when children interact with smartphones they understand the concept of touch screen and scrolling. This reflects on when they are presented with a similar object and expect it to hold the same capabilities. I’m sure we have all experienced this with older generations when showing them a video or image and they go to touch the screen and it does not work as they thought it would. The concept of different platforms with different interfaces does not appeal to them.

Individual users each have their own mental models, and different users may construct different models of the same user interface. Further, one of the usability’s big dilemmas is the common gap between the designers’ and users’ mental models.— Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of designing something that makes sense to other designers, but which nevertheless may confuse the average user.

Misalignment of mental models occurs when there is a difference between a user’s mental model and how a particular design actually works. This kind of disconnect creates usability problems, as the product doesn’t align with the user’s expectations and existing knowledge. The window for capturing a user’s attention and confidence is small, so misalignment can spell disaster.

Consumers currently have a process to purchases and rarely want to spend time filling out new forms and guest registrations. Even one change in a system process on your site could result in a substantial revenue boost. 

Improving Misaligned Mental Models

Usability testing and other UX research methods help expose discordance between the designed experience and users’ mental models. Furthermore, gaps between mental models can be improved with interactive tours, careful onboarding, and real-time feedback to assist in learning new product features and a new UI.

Updates and design changes don’t have to cause chaos for users. Instead of forcing a change, it’s beneficial to give users the opportunity to update software when they are ready. When a user is able to consciously choose when an interface may change and potentially challenge their existing model of a familiar product, they are more aware of as well as empowered by the new design.

If your system is ready for a reboot, contact Blue Archer.