Back in late February 2021, I attended the funeral of a relative. While offering condolences and assisting the family, I made some interesting observations about user guidance. Since it's been a while since I've written anything, allow me to share a few thoughts with you.
First, let's talk about funeral customs. When someone comes to pay their respects, they must register first. The registration information is recorded in two places: a logbook (probably the main record) and a separate A5 sheet that looks like a ticket. After registration, someone from the host family takes the ticket and the visitor's offering envelope, places them on a small tray (along with fruits and incense), and leads the guest to the funeral hall. At the entrance, another person collects the ticket and announces the guest's name. A family member - in this case, it was me - places the fruit tray on the altar and hands the guest an incense stick to light and places in the incense burner behind the fruit tray. Afterward, the guest is invited for refreshments, and the tray is returned to the reception table for the next visitor.
This process might seem ordinary and uneventful, but I noticed something peculiar about the incense burner. Usually, the fruit tray is tall and obscures the burner behind it, leaving only the incense sticks visible. I observed that most incense sticks were placed to the right of the person inserting them. So, I conducted a little experiment and counted the results:
Tray placed in the center: 11 out of 12 times, guests placed the incense to their right. Only once did someone place it to the left (and that person was left-handed).
Tray shifted to the right: 7 out of 10 times, guests placed the incense to the left, and the remaining 3 times, they reached over the tray to place the incense on the right.
When it comes to user behavioral design, even without considering cultural factors, design needs to influence thoughts, intrinsic behaviors, and actions. In the second experiment, I intentionally made it harder for people to place the incense on the right by shifting the tray to the right and leaving a gap on the left. However, 3 people ignored this obstacle and followed their instinct to place the incense on the right. This led to some awkward situations: people accidentally touched burning incense sticks (because the right side was crowded with incense, making the tray higher, or they had to raise their hands higher to place the incense).
The lesson I learned is that product design should consider various human aspects. For example, in software design, we often encounter situations where, despite well user behavior designed, people deviate from the intended path. This is where we need clearer boundaries, like validations or error messages in software, and assistance to help users get back on track if they don't want to risk errors. For example, allowing users to continue checkout after quitting the payment flow or topping up their balance.
On a lighter note, I could have "forcefully" intervened by telling guests to place the incense on the other side or watched them awkwardly avoid the burning incense sticks.
I have another case study to share, but I'll save it for another post to keep this one from getting too long. See you in the next post!
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