I’m in work boots and shorts, who’d have thought I needed a Psychology degree too?

Human behaviour that persists, despite the evidence, is a little bewildering.

We’re all victims of it, we all have been at some stage in our lives (and no, I’m not preaching about pandemics).

For example, we all know exercise does us good. Loads.

But given the chance, we avoid it. Why?

Maybe because it’s a bother, it’s an imposition, a nuisance, it’s too hard, too cold, too hot, I’ve got to wax my legs, clean my car, pluck my eyebrows, clean my tools, do the filing, the invoices, the emails, walk the dog, feed the kids, mow the lawn, buy stuff, whatever.

Yet we all know (beyond any doubt) that a modest amount of time sacrificed to be energetic burns carbs, reduces fat, improves blood flow, mitigates diabetes and heart disease, etc, etc, etc, is healthy for us and it improves our ability to remain on this peculiar orb for just a little while longer.

So, if that’s unequivocally the case, why don’t we all do it?

By the way, this has NOTHING to do with exercising, but everything to do with human behaviour (little did I know, and Psychology too!) and as UI and UX are at the centre of what we do, and as they respond directly to what and how people behave, engage and think, etc, well, it’s pretty important to us.

Then what is it with human behaviour which compels us otherwise?

Therefore my question (absent of any psychology skills or experience) I suppose is why does human behaviour so often prevail over the good, the beneficial, productive, profitable, the viable, the right?

I mean, it defies logic.

Conduct and behaviour become entrenched, ergo, changing entrenched ways is a big deal. A really BIG deal, I discovered.

I get it, change, in and of itself, is intolerable and confronting for many and on such a level as to even be threatening. It’s horrifying to many. Although that may not apply to the majority, it does to a lot. And I mean, a lot!

We humans tend not to embrace change, as remarkable as that might seem. But even that, it’s worse, we downright resist it.

There is a famous chart that explains human reaction to change, called the Change Curve, you might have spotted it above.

Understanding this doesn’t just help us to inform UI, it’s actually shaped ours.

I’ve long been interested in understanding this to help better frame and shape the technology we’ve created to help people resist their own tried and tested (but wasteful and unproductive) ways, for their own good.

I read a great blog post https://bethechangeasph.com/the-human-side-of-change/why-do-we-resist-change/ which helped me understand the incredible psychological roadblock that is change and all the intricacies involved in overcoming it. And reading it nearly made my head explode, I mean wow. This is not simple, not by a long shot.

Understanding the complexity of all that, one of the things I realised I had to research and study relentlessly was not so much an issue of design (in a UI context) but the fundamental or underlying resistance to change in the first place. I mean, FFS….I just wanted to build an App!

No matter how good, no matter how compelling the UI might be, it all comes down to understanding how to overcome that resistance and communicating the need for change and the value inherent in doing so, and in a manner that is accessible, not threatening.

It’s easy to think cynically and maybe reflect on how Einstein posited that the definition of stupidity was doing the same thing over and over whilst expecting a different result.

That there is possibly the single greatest barrier to achieving positive change, in everything. Because it’s inherent in all of us.

I’m not suggesting we’re stupid, but we are all victims of the convenience that is “nah, all good, I know what I’m doing.” We cling to what is familiar.

If we were all wildly successful, deliriously happy, emotionally intelligent and comfortable in every way then you couldn’t challenge that thinking. But we’re not, so why do we resist?

I can’t claim credit for this but I recall a quote that beautifully summarised for me the challenge of not resisting change. It goes something like this, “You can’t reach what’s in front of you until you let go of what’s behind you.”……….Mic drop, boom! There it is.

But I also know that that can be scary too.

All of this manifested from my research journey, way back when (wearing work-boots, filthy shorts and sweaty shirts, etc), asking loads of different human beings lots of strange and no doubt annoying questions, getting their organic and their considered responses and feedback, and trying desperately hard to understand them and to interpret all that feedback too. Because that’s where UI comes from!

My interest then lay, as it does today, in people (every single stakeholder) being able to better communicate, collaborate, coordinate, etc, to better manage building projects. Better managing ANY project really.

Simple enough of an objective, you’d think. I did too. But it wasn’t.

I spent so many hours, so many brutally hot days, so many bitterly cold weeks, months, being an absolutely annoying pain in the “A” asking hundreds of people questions about behaviour, needs, pain points, friction points, and yet, beneath it all, I knew it all came down to communicating the (unreleased) need to let go of dated and unproductive practices to embrace (to reach what’s in front of you) the value inherent in new tools, new technology.

The UI became, frankly, almost an afterthought. I know, it never is, it’s far too important, but I hope you get my point.

And during all that time I realised that overcoming the most fundamental of human behaviour was key to bringing the tools to life which can help people the most and doing so could be resolved with just one ingredient.

A wise chap by the name of Robert Cialdini once posited the six keys of persuasion. He said that “social proof” is perhaps one of the most powerful.

I’d argue that it is the most powerful, because with it change is enabled, it’s permitted! And with that you can form UI that responds, without it you’re just guessing and that achieves nothing other than stroke your own ego, maybe.

Ultimately, I guess nothing good comes about without change (certainly not with a Psychology degree involved) and that’s what we’re working hard to do for the benefit of so many. We’re helping them to change.

© Tony Huxley, Trabr Limited 2020