Imagine you walk into work tomorrow and there’s something seriously off. A man has taken a member of staff hostage. He’s aggressive and shouting at everyone. And he has a gun.
“Get me all the money!” he screams, addressing you.
What would you do?
While most of us would get on with panicking, if you were an FBI hostage negotiator, you’d apply the 7/38/55 rule.
Hostage negotiators are trained to observe their subjects deeply.
And the rule states that people provide a lot more information than that implicit in the words they say. In fact, the ‘7’ refers to the amount of information provided by the words the subject says. Just 7%.
Tone of voice accounts for 38%.
Does the individual sound like they’re enjoying this? Or do they sound scared? What happens to the tone when you respond to their questions? Are they able to process the facts – for example, that you don’t have access to the tills – or do they just scream their demands louder? This gives you a clearer insight into their mental state.
A massive 55% of the information the subject provides is from body language. How are they holding the gun? Like they’ve used one before? Are they making showy moves? That might imply that the weapon scares them as much as it does you. Is the gun even real? Rubbing a hand against the back of the head, for example, is a universal gesture thought to replicate a mother’s touch when we’re upset. It’s a way of self-comforting that implies agitation.
Hostage negotiators like Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference: negotiating as if your life depended on it, advocate processing as much of this information as possible, while continuing to ask questions. To learn more. To move the subject from a state of agitation to a calmer one and reduce the danger.
Today Voss applies these techniques to business negotiations. But they also apply to our online experiences with brands. How many times have you visited a website where the text asserts that simplicity is at at the core of their brand proposition, only to find the user journey is so confusing you can’t achieve what you came to do?
Subconsciously, do you trust this brand to deliver on its promise? Probably not.
Just as with hostage negotiation, in UX, effective communication plays a pivotal role in creating memorable and engaging online experiences.
The 7%: words matter
UX writers should be heavily involved in the design process, not an afterthought. Look at the words you are using. Does the user experience reflect them? The design and the words should communicate the same message, especially as the one (the words) is understood directly by the user, while the second (the design) will often send a subconscious message.
The 38%: tone of voice
If the words speak to the head, the tone in which they’re delivered hits our emotional centres. Read a Nike ad from any time in the last 25 years. The tone is consistent and could be no other brand. These products are about having fun.
How fun is reading this next sentence? Under no circumstances should passive constructions be utilised. Let’s not write like that.
We should also make efforts to understand and empathise with our users. By leveraging our resources in user profiling, and the results of our user research, we can better address actual user pain points and difficulties, rather than the ones we imagine they might have.
The desire to feel understood is a vital, universal one. We’ll be a step ahead of our competitors if our users feel understood, even (or especially) when something has gone wrong.
The 55%: design choices
Design choices constitute the lion’s share of online communication. The visual aspects of a website or app are the first things users notice, and they play a pivotal role in shaping perception of the brand.
By emphasising a simple and intuitive user journey through your design, we reduce the cognitive load and let the user focus on the games themselves (the fun bit). Clean layouts, easy-to-navigate menus, and clear signposts suggest transparency, which is important when we expect users to give their personal details and spend money.
With a mindful approach to visual hierarchy, we can test our assumptions against real user reactions. Do users feel our products the way we want them to feel? We can test different contrasting colours, typography, and spacing to achieve it.
Likewise, if we want to come across as inclusive, we should ensure that we hit accessibility standards so that all users can play.
What’s key here is that all players in the UX design process – research, strategy, writing, design and product – should be involved from the beginning. If we want our products to feel coherent, we need a shared concept of what this should look like. Then we can ensure the different elements support each other to form a holistic whole.
In this way, we’ll elevate our designs from merely applying best practices to feeling like brands with living, breathing personalities.
What do you think? Can applied psychology help us make better online experiences? What about our own day-to-day interactions?
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