As marketers, designers, or product managers, you work generally on experiences, and that too, such that our intended audience finds it easy to associate with in significant numbers. But, to understand whatever it is that the audience wants or needs, and further expects from you, one has to understand user psychology.
User psychology explains what people think, feel, and do around products, services, and experiences. With a basic understanding of user psychology, we are able to design marketing campaigns, engage users, and eventually build successful products.
Here, in a nutshell, are the basics you need to know about user psychology:
1. Desires and needs that explain pretty much what drives people
Everyone has some basic needs and wants that motivate or drive them to act. Needs can be, for example, food, shelter, and safety; while wants include love, acceptance, and status. It is important to understand what they may be in order to create marketing messages that your audience can relate to.
2. Emotions drive human behavior.
Emotions are central to how people think and act. Positive emotions result in joy, excitement, and happiness, or otherwise positive activities. At the same breath, negative activities also result from negative feelings such as fear, anger, and sadness. Getting to know the emotional triggers that drive your audience shall help in creating messaging that will deeply reverberate with them.
3.We are bound by our cognitive abilities.
People do have cognitive constraints, which only change the character of human decision-making processes. Some of these constraints are those of attention, memory, and cognitive load. Arguing from these cognitive constraints will aid in your design of the complex user experiences you'll craft.
4. People are social animals
Humans are social creatures; we get influenced by the people around us. Insight into how the peer group influences the target audience will help devise strategies for social proof and social influence to drive them towards action.
5. Customer are Goal-Oriented
Customers act as a result of both conscious and unconscious goals. Knowing the goals of your target audience will be helpful to design products and experiences that will help them aim towards attaining those goals.
Now that you have become familiar with some of the basics in the psychology of users, you will be able to leverage them and drive the creation of marketing campaigns, the development of user experiences, and products that really fit the needs of your audience by knowing their needs, wants, emotions, cognitive limits, social influence, and goals.