UX research makes an association’s website redesign more successful. User experience research is an important way to determine what your members want/need for their website experience. Having the most important information clearly defined and easy to access is key for a successful website experience.
When we conduct user research, we need to watch out for common biases that can negatively influence design decisions. Biased thinking favors or has a prejudice against someone or something. There are many types of bias that can happen. Here are a few of the common types of bias that appear in UX research:
Confirmation Bias
We tend to seek information that conforms to our assumptions and we prefer it to information that contradicts them. We may not even realize that we are doing this. For instance, you might not believe that other users have difficulty using a website feature that you personally find easy to use. So, you might miss an opportunity to improve a feature on your website and make it simpler for everyone to use. To avoid this bias, keep an open mind, understand confirmation bias exists and reflect on your experience. Seek additional information and multiple users’ input for informed and unbiased decisions. Read more about confirmation bias here.
Recency & Primacy Bias
With Recency bias, we unconsciously tend to prefer the design we’ve seen most recently. Instead of considering all of the website design options presented, we focus on what is most recent. Primacy bias is a little different, we tend to remember the first thing we saw more prominently and discount later versions. Knowing that these types of bias can happen can help us to combat them and consider all versions equally.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
We’ve already spent so much time and money on a website redesign project for our association that we’re hesitant to address user experience research that is showing problems with the design. Instead of being willing to make changes at an advanced stage, we decide to forge ahead with the site as it is since we believe enough has been spent at this point. This leads to problems down the road when the website doesn’t perform as well for your association’s members as it could. Goodwill is lost when members don’t have a good experience on the site and leave in frustration.
There are many other types of UX research bias to be avoided. Learn about other types of bias. Contact us if you are interested in an association’s website redesign project. We have completed several successful association website launches. See more about our association marketing.
