Ep 227| Neuroscience behind feedback for Interaction Designers

Feedback is an inherent part of anybody interact in a project. Without feedback, nothing works. Why it is very important, particularly with respect to interaction design, is because of this feedback is not given. We go into a mode of frustration. Let's say if you are closing the door, there is no feedback whether the door is closed or not. If, let's say we are starting the bike, there is no sound of ignition, how do we really experience? We will come out of the vehicle and then we will check whether something has gone wrong. We will check again whether the ignition started working, whether the key is properly there, whether the door has properly locked. In this video I am going to tell you why it is very important. How, how in design, it's impacting a lot. Let's jump in. Concept shows that the information written to the user about a particular action performed and its outcome. So this is what is actually called feedback. The brain relies on certain feedback mechanisms to learn and adapt. Know very much clearly whether it's an auditory feedback, whether it's a sound feedback, whether it's a tactile feedback, whether it's something like, like let's say, touch feedback. So we will be having a very pollated experience of coming from a different senses what we have. So that's why it's very important to give. If you're not giving, then we tend to go into a frustration and then we assume something else or wrongly interpolate and then error happens. In the neuroscience, there is something called basal ganglia inside our brain and the prefrontal cortex which is involved in that. This guy is very important. The prefrontal context is very important for producing creativity. Inside our brain there is another thing also called amygdala. This is involved in survival kind of a mechanism which is not that good, okay. It operates only in some kind of fight response. But prefrontal cortex is very interesting and important because this involves in creativity. So whenever a feedback is raised on this feedback mechanism to learn and adapt and move forward, we are not subconsciously tuned to it. During our formation of the learning period from the childhood, we tend to improve that prefrontal cortex. If we pay close attention more, then our prefrontal cortex will have much more impact on awareness towards designing a product. You tend to have awareness towards giving a feedback to a product, towards a service, towards an app, towards a website, whatever science which is happening behind it. What are the examples? Smartphones. Vibrations are the most important element because of that vibration. Because of that sound we receive from the notification, we tend to know whether it's a notification or It's a call alert or it's just a message or it's an. When you take haptic response, like let's say Apple has a force sensor, when you click an icon, you tend to get more feedback. Like let's say what else this app can do. It's not like just opening and closing. You get to have a vibration, you get to have a visual. Also all these things are giving you a feedback. Whatever you intended to do is happening in real time or not. Many times user doesn't know whether the food is heated or not. They again reprogram something whether the sufficient heat is produced and then they put it again and what happens? The food burns, the food is not even heated. So that frustration can be avoided once the feedback is given to you properly. That's why in user interface and user experience this is very, very vital. Let me give you an example. Apple haptic feedback. Even after iPhone 6 or 7 you can see this haptic feedback is very, very prominent. So people tend to use that force sensor and then to get the feedback. Okay, this has been proven. So why it is very bad is good, but can it impact in a greater impact on a user experience engagement increase? Yes, 95% of the user consider feedback is essential for a good user experience. Nielsen Norman Group has did this research. Effective feedback can reduce error up to 50. We are operating a product like let's say this remote or charge feedback is not there. You tend to overcharge it. Or maybe you the charge is happening, but after two hours your phone is switched off. Maybe you missed a call each of the time the error happens, but 50% is corrected. So how do we make it? 100% how do we make it? It's all how you understand feedback. You can read a more scientific journal called Neural Mechanism of learning by Cognitive Neuroscience. So the role of information what is there in our brain is very, very, very important. Which involves the user to take the effective feedback and interpret and take a decision. If that is not given properly, then user will go into frustration, error happens and the user experience only get reduced. So this is the reason why feedback is very important. I wanted you to comment in this video. What did you learn from this? And take any one product and understand what kind of a feedback it is giving to you. You can take a product like this, could be anything. You can take a digital app, understand why and what this kind of feedback is designed in this product and what do you understand from it? I'll be making sure reading each and every comment and giving you take action implement. And then you give effort to understand this. Your alarm starts growing every single day. Whenever you take a product, whenever you take an interf, this habit keeps on kicking you. And then you tend to have more awareness while you're designing this. Okay, thank you so much. We'll see you in another video.