User biases to look for in your next testing
Dec 8, 2023
Human behavior is one of the most studied topics in today’s times and as product people, we all have been at the observing end where we experience unique behaviors of our users who experience our products in their day-to-day lives. Today I decided to explore the unique biases that can show up during our interaction with the end user, especially during user testing
There are 2 angles to the biases that can be present in the testing sessions
The Observer Effect
The Hawthorne effect is one of the crucial ones that we may get to see without realizing it, It is defined as the tendency to act differently when you know you’re being watched
Imagine yourself being in the examination hall where the invigilator comes and stands above your shoulder and you are already struggling with a question, your brain would be on its best behavior to not write the wrong answer, similarly, our users tend to be more cautious when they are experiencing the new solution we presented in front of them
How might we avoid this?
We can motivate our participants to not hesitate to make mistakes and reassure them that this would give us ( the product owner/designer) the chance to consider it and improve in the upcoming solutions
The Experimenter effect / Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is defined as the tendency to recall/process the first information that tends to go with their beliefs. During the testing when the experimenter communicates the tasks to be completed and their expectations to the participants, they already have an idea of how they desire the feedback to be. Often this can come in the way of keeping an open mind while receiving feedback.
How might we avoid this?
While it is good to have an idea of how we desire the feedback to be, it is always good to take the feedback constructively even if it challenges our hypothesis at times. We can start to avoid this by being aware of it in the first place
Final thoughts
Biases are inevitable as we are humans and we will always use certain tools that help us in our decision-making, the best we can do is to be aware of them and make a conscious effort to not let them come in our way of interacting with participants and making product decisions and continue to have an open mind in our sessions