Write a short essay (200-300 words) on the topic: “How should cognitive psychology principles be taken

into account in the design of a web service for mobile and desktop browser that motivates or supports
university students towards sustainable behavior at campus or at home?”

When we design a product, we first do the user research to find the user problems and then ideate
solutions based on the users’ needs and the problems they are facing. Following this, we go to the design
phase of the product. Nowadays, it is very important to integrate cognitive psychology principles in the
design of a web service to motivate students toward sustainable behavior anywhere.

Before delving into the cognitive principles, it is worth to note the following whenever an user interacts
with a product (GrowthDesign).

1. Filter the information

2. Seek the meaning of it
3. Act within a given time
4. Store bits of the interaction in their memories

Hence, to address all these above, we need to take the help of cognitive biases to make a seamless
experience for our users.

Here are the principles we will use for our project.

1. Hick’s law : The time to make a decision increases when you are overwhelmed with multiple
options.

As our project is about motivating students toward sustainable behavior, the web service will
provide options or sustainable behavior advice or activities by following this principle so that the
user does not have to put in much effort to decide what to do once he interacts with a particular
screen.

2. Social Proof: People tend to follow a behavior or perceive it with utmost importance when he
sees others doing it.

In our project, we will incorporate social proof whenever our web service is asking the user to do
a particular sustainable behavior. Here, social proof has a role to play since it would encourage
him to adopt the suggested behavior as he is seeing others are doing and making an impact in
his surroundings.

3. Framing : Framing means how you are presenting the information or asking the users to do
something since the way you present or ask affects the decision making for the user.
When we are speaking about framing, the loss aversion concept should be considered. Loss
aversion concept tells us people are more inclined to avert losses than make gains.

Hence, in our project, if we can frame the communication inside our web service from the loss
aversion perspective, telling users what they are losing in their life due to lack of sustainable
behaviors, it could be a better way to captivate their attention and subsequently drive them
towards taking necessary steps.