Behavioral Economics talks

Behavioral economics studies how people actually make decisions, as opposed to how a perfectly rational person would. It shows that choices are shaped by mental shortcuts and biases: we weigh losses more heavily than gains, stick with defaults, are swayed by how options are framed, and can feel overwhelmed when given too many choices.

For UI, UX and product design, these findings are practical. Every interface presents choices, sets defaults and frames information, so it inevitably influences decisions. Understanding behavioral economics helps designers make decisions easier, support people’s goals and avoid manipulating them.

The talks here, recorded between 2007 and 2017, include some of the field’s best-known voices. Daniel Kahneman talks about Thinking, Fast and Slow, and Richard Thaler about Nudge. Barry Schwartz’s The paradox of choice (TED, 2007) and Sheena Iyengar’s The art of choosing (TED, 2010) look at how people choose. Maurits Kaptein’s TED talks cover persuasion and personalized persuasion profiles, Nathalie Nahai explains how to use psychology to make people click, and Anders Toxboe’s Beyond usability: Designing with persuasive patterns (GOTO, 2018) applies the ideas to interface design. Tricia Wang’s talk on the human insights missing from big data rounds out the set. Many of these effects, such as anchoring, loss aversion and status quo bias, appear as persuasive patterns in the UI-Patterns.com library.