De-stressing design
Exploring the impact of stress on our brains and subsequent online behaviours, and how this might be alleviated via compassionate design.
These are stressful times we’re living in. This article offers a light-touch explanation of the effect stress has on our brains and, in turn, on our online behaviours. We’ll then look at the most important principles when designing for stressed users.
There are three key ways users may experience stress when interacting with your product:
- Stress in user’s life: User is suffering from stress in their lives/ personal circumstances, not catalysed by interacting with your product. E.g. fraught about Covid 19.
- Mission is stressful: Interaction with the product is stressful as this is a high risk/ high investment product which they have insufficient resources to make a comfortable, informed choice about. E.g. buying a laptop which is required immediately.
- User doesn’t know how to complete interaction: Interaction with product is stressful as something has gone awry or user doesn’t know how to complete interaction. E.g. user can’t see how to cancel a food delivery.
Biological impact of stress
When we are stressed, there is a shift from the rational to the emotional and instinctual. Our emotional, automatic System 1 brain is more likely to roam unchecked by our deliberate, conscious, logical System 2.
To understand why this happens, let’s explore some basic neuroscience. Here are some key areas to consider…
- Cortisol: When a person is stressed, the adrenal glands release cortisol into the bloodstream. Excessive cortisol can be very damaging, actually serving to shrink our cerebral brains and worsen our visual perception, memory and overall cognitive functions.
- Prefrontal Cortex: The prefrontal cortex is a cerebral area particularly impaired by stress and is the region which controls working memory, decision making and spatial and sequential learning.
- Amygdala: Then we have the Amygdala which is the key area for emotion and instinct. The amygdala, conversely, is stimulated by stress and becomes much more dominant.
Hence the prevalence of the emotional over the rational. There’s a switch from what is known as Top Down attention — referring to prior knowledge, plans and goals — to Bottom Up attention — purely driven by external factors.
Cognitive effects and online behaviour
There are many ways in which these cognitive effects can impact online behaviour…
Spatial learning involves encoding information about our environment to facilitate navigation — i.e. making sense of and storing info to help us find our way. It follows that stressed individuals with reduced spatial learning might have difficulty navigating around a website.
Visual perception is our interpretation of what is visually presented to us and occurs in the brain’s cerebral cortex. Difficulties with visual perception aren’t related to sharpness of vision but how visual information is interpreted, or processed by the brain. Potentially this could mean a lot of the cues we endeavour to convey through our UI aren’t registered. Symbolism or icons could be overlooked or misinterpreted.
The prefrontal cortex is very much responsible for goal directed learnings and connecting actions with outcomes. When stressed, action-outcome associations are weakened so people tend to repeat similar actions which haven’t worked. Stressed online users may click the same buttons or perform actions over and over again, despite these not achieving the required result.
Stressed users will frequently abandon tasks at a critical moment and run away as cognitive load gets the better of them. They’re particularly overwhelmed by cognitive load due to impaired working memory and limited top-down perception, again due to damage to the prefrontal cortex and overall cerebral cortex area.
Design to alleviate stress
To aid compassionate design we should ask questions from the outset around user’s likely state of mind when using your product, likely stress points and response to each of these, plus how personal circumstances might affect the user’s experience. These questions should be explored via customer journey mapping, personas and, of course, primary research and usability testing — although these can comprise a host of challenges which I aim to explore further in another post.
The following principles become particularly important when designing for stressed users…
Reduce cognitive load:
We should aim to reduce cognitive load by simplifying designs as much as possible and presenting info via digestible chunks.
Due to impaired working memory, stressed individuals tend to have difficulty integrating and comparing sources of info. For this reason, we should adhere to the Proximity Compatibility Principle which states that info sources required for common tasks should be presented close together or with visual similarity (i.e. match mental and display proximity).
This difficulty also makes stressed users particularly prone to paralysis of choice — which can further increase anxiety — so we should avoid presenting excessive options.
Enhance perceived control:
Enhance the user’s perception of control by breaking down processes into smaller, achievable steps — thus making progress more tangible and evoking a sense of accomplishment. This in turn should increase confidence and make end-goals seem more attainable — forming Positive Cognitive Appraisal, which is brilliantly explained by Hannah Locke.
Remove ambiguity:
Due to weakened visual perceptions, icons and symbols should be familiar and salient and we should consider the benefits of accompanying labels. Reduced spatial learning and navigational skills make clear signposting and intuitive IAs essential. Language must also be clear and unambiguous.
Value user’s time:
We should value the stressed user’s time and keep demands low by requesting only necessary inputs and automating where possible.
Humanise:
We should also consider how to humanise tone of voice and best convey empathy and support.
Understanding what actually happens to us in our stressful moments can better equip us to alleviate stress through design. This article scratches the surface of this complex topic. Below are some useful references which have informed my understanding thus far…
References:
Rongiun Yu 2016: Stress potentiates decision biases: A stress induced deliberation-to-intuition (SIDI) model
Christopher D Wickens 2000: Designing for Stress — Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments
Jonathon Hensley 2021: Designing for Moments of Crisis: How to Ensure Your Products are Accessible to All Users
H Locke 2020: Designing for stressed-out users Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Libby Bawcombe 2016: Designing News Products With Empathy: How to plan for individual users’ needs and stresses
J. L. Szalma and P. A. Hancock: Human Computer Interaction Fundamentals: Chapter 6: Task Loading and Stress in Human Computer Interaction: Theoretical Frameworks and Mitigation Strategies
