A study by QuickSprout found that the conversion rate on forms with three input fields will reduce to half if a fourth field is added!
As humans, our ability to choose what is important, is impacted by an information or choice overload! Hick's law states that the more choices you are presented with, the longer it will take for you to decide. Seth Godin once said, “In a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff!”
The best product designers understand this, and its evidence is in examples we see around us. Consumer durables like Microwaves or Refrigerators are complex machines, but users' options are limited. Even websites or apps that perform well are optimized to present information in a hierarchical order.
But what if your business needs a lot of input from the users?
Typeform uses an effective technique called Progressive Disclosure to help with this problem. They have brought in a user experience to forms that present their users with fewer options, making it easier to make decisions quickly and easily.
It is a perfect example of staged progression where interactions are kept simple, and information is divided, so as not to cause cognitive overload. We have seen this technique used in games and even Netflix series with interactive videos.
Combining Hick's Law and Progressive Disclosure
There are benefits to combining cognitive biases in your user experience. Here are some suggestions to make use of the ones we have discussed in this article -
- Reducing the number of choices you present to your user, especially when response time is critical to decision-making.
- Breaking down tasks into smaller steps can reduce the number of choices users have to make. This will prevent them from getting overwhelmed or confused.
- Using progressive onboarding to minimize cognitive load for new users. A study done by Venture Harbour suggests that multi-step forms can lead to 300% more conversions!
It is an unpleasant feeling to be constantly bombarded with choices and not know which one you should make. By understanding how your users make decisions, you can create user experiences that are more efficient and enjoyable with the help of cognitive psychology.
Using Nexweave’s intuitive editor, you can create custom forms as the one above! The principle of progressive disclosure has been applied to collect viewer data in a step-by-step manner. Further, Nexweave’s interactive elements can be programmed to redirect different time frames within the same video, empowering you to get super creative!
You can find a wide collection of ready-to-use and completely editable templates in our template library! So go ahead and experiment