Expression

The user talks about cognitive bias. I have always been fascinated by this topic. It's a very common pitfall designers and developers fall into if they are not careful about it.

Bias is an unavoidable part of human beings, rooted in the way our brains are built to conserve energy by relying on shortcuts. These shortcuts are often formed based on our personal experiences. It helps us move quickly through the world, but they also shape how we understand and design for others. According to the authors, our brain is likely to set up what the user calls a System 1 thinking, which is a fast, automatic and intuitive mode that makes an instant judgment without the need of much effort. This type of thinking is useful for everyday decisions, it is likely to be impulsive and stereotypical because it functions based on what is easiest to recall. This is a direct connection to the availability heuristic, where we assume something is common simply because it comes readily to mind.

This is the major pitfall, I often find myself falling into, whenever I start designing and developing. The thinking is quite straightforward and instant at first that makes me feel like, “this is how users will experience” but when shown to actual end users they have different perspectives, which I sometimes did not even consider while I was planning. Generally speaking, this pattern is very common among us no matter our profession. This is a normal thinking pattern. The writers warn us about this pitfall.

The chapter is a word of wisdom. I feel like along with learning technical skills and training our design instinct along the way it is also equally important to have less cognitive bias as much as possible. Because we are not building or designing just for ourselves or not just people of our category. Our project is going to be presented among lots of people. And we should not have stiff thoughts about one particular category of people.

Simple is not so simple to be honest. The writers make me think more about what I have designed. An extra load to an overthinking mind but essential. I feel like there should be an intensive amount of research even in a simple project if we are to achieve the maximum score on our target scale. I am starting to think, probably we have the control on how we present our ideas which could be unique and of our taste but the principle of common human psychology should not be ignored unless we are freestyling or showing off our skills, and if that is our primary objective.

I do feel like I could be on the right path, because before starting off any project I tend to do research if I have enough time. There is the space where I tend to fill up with questions on my own design. I never feel like my project delivers the best at the initial thought, so I start researching what could be the best for the user. At this process I often find myself ignoring my ideas, which upsets me at times but this is what it is.

This chapter made me feel like I could be on the right track, but I often wonder about the time. The research requires me a lot of time. We have to constantly revisit our biases and ask proper questions to self so there is a distance between the oneself thought and the actual targeted audiences. I wish the writer had also written about how to achieve the best result in a short period of time. Maybe defined a framework on how not to fall into our own biases.