What is Biases in UX?

A bias is a preference or prejudice against something based on limited information. It's like forming an opinion about someone before you've really met them. We all have prejudices, and they're often unconscious. We can't get rid of prejudice completely, but we can become aware of it and work to overcome it.

At UX, this is critical to the success of the product and to your professional development. Bias can really get in our way.

The first bias to be aware of is confirmation bias. This bias occurs when you're looking for evidence to support a hypothesis you've made. Because you believe you already know the answer, you're drawn to information that confirms your beliefs and biases. Let's say you've a prejudice that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. When you do research, you'll tend to look for evidence that confirms this belief, and you'll use it to support your arguments, even if they aren't necessarily true.

Confirmation Bias

One of the most effective ways to avoid confirmation bias in research papers is to ask open-ended questions during interviews. An open-ended question allows the interviewee to answer freely, rather than just yes or no.

Also, get into the habit of actively listening without adding your own opinion. This means that you don't dictate to your interviewees the answer you want them to give. Another way to avoid confirmation bias is to include a large sample of users. Make sure you're not just looking for a small group of people who match your preconceived notions. You should have a large sample of users with different perspectives.

False Consensus Bias

The false consensus, which is the assumption that others think the same way you do. In UX research, false consensus occurs when we overestimate the number of people who agree with our idea or design, resulting in false consensus. The false consensus can go so far as to assume that everyone who disagrees with you is abnormal. You can avoid the bias of false consensus by identifying and articulating your assumptions. For example, you might live in a community that often identifies with certain political beliefs. When you meet a new person, you might assume that they share your political beliefs because you both live in the same city. But that's not necessarily the case. If you find a few people who agree with your beliefs and assume they represent the entire community, that's a false consensus. That's another reason to poll large groups of people.

Recency Bias

Another type of bias that affects designers is recency bias. Here, it's easiest to remember what you heard last in an interview, conversation, or similar situation because it's the latest thing. When you're talking to someone, you're more likely to remember what they said at the end of the conversation.

To overcome recency bias, you can take detailed notes or recordings of each interview or conversation. This way, you can review what was said at the beginning of the conversation in case you don't remember.

Primacy Bias

UX designers may also struggle with primacy bias, where people remember the first participant the most. Sometimes the first person you meet leaves the strongest impression because you're in a new situation or having a new experience. Primacy Bias, like Recency Bias, is another reason to take detailed notes or records so you can review everything that happened, not just the memorable first impressions.

Recency Bias and Primacy Bias also show why you should interview each participant the same way. Consistency makes it easier to make comparisons and contrasts over time. Consistency makes it more likely that you'll remember the unusual and important moments that occur during the course of your study.

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias is also known as unconscious bias. Implicit bias is a collection of attitudes and stereotypes that we associate with people without our conscious knowledge. One of the most common forms of implicit bias on UX is that we only interview people who fit a limited set of identity profiles, such as race, age, gender, socioeconomic status, and ability. These profiles are generally based on assumptions we've about certain types of people. Implicit bias, for example, can make you feel uncomfortable interviewing people whose life experiences are different from your own.

On the other hand, we might choose to interview people from typically excluded groups, but then ask potentially offensive questions because of our internalized stereotypes. Both scenarios are problematic and lead to a lack of representativeness in our research and design process. The important thing to remember about implicit biases is that everyone has them.

To overcome our prejudices, we can reflect on our behavior and ask others to point out our implicit prejudices. This is one of the best ways to become aware of our prejudices

The Sunk Cost Fallacy

The last form of bias we'll cover is the sunk cost fallacy. This is the idea that the deeper we've invested in a project without feeling that we've failed or wasted time, the harder it's to change course. The term "sunk cost" refers to the time we've already invested in a project or activity. For example, you might think to yourself, I might as well keep watching this awful movie because I've already watched an hour of it. For UX designers, the sunk cost fallacy comes into play when they're working on a design. They may have invested hours into developing a new feature, but then realized that the feature doesn't really solve a user problem. It's easy to keep working on a design you've invested time in. But at the end of the day, you need to focus on work that will have a positive impact on users.

To avoid the sunk cost fallacy, break your project into smaller phases and then set specific points at which you can decide to keep working or stop. This way, you can go back based on new findings before the project is too far along.

Bias is a limitation that goes far beyond UX design and user research. They can creep into the way we make friends, manage projects at work, and communicate with family members.