The Psychology Behind The Product
Exploring How Products Can Leverage Psychological Principles To Build Great Experiences
Products are designed to address the needs of specific groups of people. Therefore, product teams spend a lot of time exploring how their users behave and uncovering what drives their behavior. To build a great solution, they must first understand the people they are solving problems for. While people’s needs can vary significantly, some elements of human behavior almost always remain consistent across different types of products. When teams understand core psychological principles and concepts, they can design better solutions and better experiences.
You May Also Like: Exploring Great User Experiences, Examining User Behavior, and Designing For People
Key Psychological Principles
Gestalt Theory
Gestalt Theory describes how people perceive patterns and organize visual information. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that feel intuitive by aligning with how the human brain organizes information. People naturally group elements together to perceive design as a whole. For example, when a product’s interface feels disjointed or messy, users get confused, even if all the functionality is technically there.
Use visual similarity (same color, same icon style, etc.) to associate elements with related functions (e.g. all “Edit” buttons look the same across pages).
Create visual continuity by using Use consistent alignment in forms and sections to make it easy to scan and understand.
Distinguish foreground from background by using contrast to highlight key actions (“Submit,” “Next,” etc.) so they stand out from the rest of the page.
Hicks Law
Hicks Law states that when people are given more choices, they need more time to make decisions. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that help users feel more in control by making their choices clearer and more manageable. Making choices (especially complex ones) can require significant mental effort, so guiding people through decisions will improve their experience in every context. For example, when signing up for a product, users are more likely to complete the process if they need to make fewer choices.
Limit information and actions presented to the user based on relevance and priority.
Break down complex, multi-step tasks into a guided flow where users focus on one step at a time.
Guide decisions with recommendations by offering intelligent defaults to streamline user decisions (templates, pre-configured settings, etc.).
Fitts Law
Fitts’s Law states that the time it takes for a person to interact with a target depends on how big the target is and how far away it is. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that feel easier to use by making important interactions highly visible and low-effort. People are more likely to interact with an element (like a button or link) if it’s highly visible and close. For example, if the primary call-to-action (“Buy,” “Submit,” ”Sign-Up,” etc.) is small or tucked away, users may miss it, reducing conversions and/or increasing user frustration.
Make important actions more visible so they are easy to spot and complete, especially on mobile.
Place actions where the user’s attention is already focused by limiting how much the user has to scroll or move their cursor to take key actions.
Reduce the distance between sequential actions by keeping subsequent actions (clicks, text input, etc.) close to where users just typed or clicked.
Jakob’s Law
Jakob’s Law states that people expect your product to work like others they already use. When your user experience mirrors those of similar products, it feels dramatically more intuitive because users don’t have to re-learn how to complete familiar actions. Familiarity reduces friction. Product teams can use this principle to design experiences that feel instantly usable by sticking to established patterns. For example, on an e-commerce app, using a shopping cart icon in the top-right corner meets user expectations and avoids confusion.
Avoid unfamiliar jargon and use familiar terms that align with industry norms and user expectations.
Follow established UI patterns, navigation styles, form layouts, and interactions users have seen in other tools.
Mirror real-world logic by structuring your product’s workflows in ways that match how users naturally think or behave outside the app.
Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik Effect describes the tendency for people to remember and feel a mental pull toward incomplete tasks. Product teams can use this concept to drive engagement and encourage task completion by making progress (or the lack of it) visible. For example, showing an onboarding checklist with only 2 out of 5 steps completed creates a subtle sense of tension that motivates users to finish the rest.
Remind users of unfinished actions by sending email nudges or in-app prompts like “You’re almost done!” to re-engage users.
Use progress indicators and checklists to show users how far they've come—and how far they have left to go—to encourage completion.
Break tasks into smaller, visible steps by structuring tasks into clear chunks makes them feel more achievable and highlights what’s still pending.
Temporal Discounting
Temporal Discounting is the tendency for people to favor immediate rewards over delayed benefits—even if the long-term outcome is better. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that offer quick wins early on, helping users feel a sense of progress and satisfaction immediately. This ensures they stick around long enough to experience the longer-term benefits. For example, if your product requires a complex setup, users may drop off before they see the results. However, emphasizing immediate benefits you tap into their desire for instant gratification.
Offer starter templates or one-click actions to help users achieve something useful right away, with minimal effort.
Create a sense of accomplishment along the way by “rewarding” users for each completed step to keep motivation high.
Use progress indicators to show users that their actions are having an immediate impact (loading bars, success messages, etc.).
Other Useful Psychological Concepts
Providing Visibility
Visibility helps people always know what’s happening when using a product. Uncertainty results in confusion, hesitation, and even abandonment. Product teams can use this concept to maximize clarity and confidence by making system status, actions, next steps, and outcomes highly visible. For example, if a user clicks “Submit” and nothing happens, they may wonder if the action worked and try again—potentially leading to errors or frustration. A simple loading spinner or success message prevents this uncertainty.
Show users where they are in a flow (using progress bars, step indicators, breadcrumbs, etc.) to give context.
Provide feedback for every action by providing confirmation (using tooltips, toast messages, inline messages, etc.), so users know if something worked.
Communicate system status in real-time (using spinners, loaders, etc.) to show background processes and next steps (”Complete step XYZ,” “All set,” etc.).
Minimizing Cognitive Load
Cognitive load occurs because people can only hold a limited amount of information in their short-term memory. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that are cognitively less demanding for users (reducing the number of steps, presenting simpler information, etc.), making it easier for users to interact with the product. For example, when showing users options on an e-commerce site, it can be helpful to highlight previous purchases (”You previously purchased…”) so users can assess the options more easily.
Every piece of information shared with the user is an additional thing they have to remember when making a decision, so limit the information shared.
Progressively share information by breaking up large pieces of information into more digestible, understandable pieces across multiple steps or screens.
Provide contextual cues (using tooltips, inline help, dynamic hints/suggestions, etc.) to guide users (performing actions, using features, addressing issues, etc.).
Accommodating Mistakes
Mistakes are an inevitable element of human behavior. They often stem from confusing, misleading, or poorly structured experiences. Product teams can minimize the emotional impact of mistakes by designing experiences that are intuitive, forgiving, and error-resistant. For example, if a user accidentally deletes important data and there’s no way to undo the action, the resulting frustration can lead them to stop using the product altogether.
Allow users to exit, cancel, or backtrack at any time, so they are not trapped in a dead-end flow.
Make recovery easy by allowing users to cancel, undo, or roll back unintended actions (making a purchase, adding/removing a user, etc.).
For high-stakes interactions (payment, authorizations, etc.), add a confirmation step (popups, user verification, etc.) before irreversible actions.
Delivering Assistance
Assistance is necessary when something goes wrong and/or when people don’t know what to do. Product teams can use this concept to design experiences that are more supportive, trustworthy, and user-friendly. When help is easy to access and issues are explained clearly, users feel more confident and in control. For example, a vague error message like “An error occurred” can frustrate users, while a clear message like “Your card was declined—please check your billing info” is more understandable and actionable.
Use visual examples (screenshots, videos, or interactive demos) to make guidance more effective.
When errors occur, use plain language to explain what happened and outline the next steps with specific guidance (via error messages, tooltips, etc.).
Offer on-demand in-product assistance (through tooltips, inline guides, help sidebars, etc.), so users don’t have to leave the experience to get help.
Conclusion
When product teams understand the basics of user psychology, they can design better solutions.
Product teams must deeply understand user behavior in the context of the specific problems they are solving. However, the fundamentals of how people behave don’t really change across different products. Behind every user interaction, there’s a person trying to figure out how to use the product to accomplish a certain goal. The user experiences must align with their beliefs and expectations (how it works, what it does, how/when/where it can be used, etc.). As products grow in complexity and capability, users must process more options and information while navigating and using the product. When product teams understand core psychological principles and concepts, they can design solutions that remain effective, usable, and intuitive, even as the product evolves.