uxreferences.online

Insights of marginal utility for UX Design

Ever heard of the popular insights like the Law of Proximity or Miller’s Law? But what about the forgotten ones—the ones about as useful as a solar-powered flashlight? This website list articles with unintentional, marginally useful UX insights. Because why not.

Cognitive Emotions Facial reactions Language Perception Self-prioritization effect SNARC Social

  • Users may memorize better positive words when they are at the bottom of the screen and vice versa

    In a study conducted in 2014, researchers investigated how the fact that we often associate positive things with “up” and negative things with “down” can affect our ability to remember positive and negative words. In the primary task, 18 participants had to observe words displaying on the top or bottom of the screen before writing them down by memory. The analytical approach involved comparing proportions of words by valence and recall, in regards of location, as well as mean and standard error of recalls. Confounders like arousal and valence differences between words were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that positive words would be more easily memorized when presented on the bottom of the screen and vice versa (experiment 1), was supported by the results with a large (p. 2) effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.

    It is likely that placing negative words up and positive words down will result in a better memorization.

    Crawford, L. E., Cohn, S. M., & Kim, A. B. (2014). “Good is up” is not always better: a memory advantage for words in Metaphor-Incompatible locations. PLOS ONE, 9(9), e108269. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0108269

    Original article | Public full text

  • Users may more easily perceive positive words when they are at the top of the screen and vice versa

    In a study conducted in 2012, researchers investigated how having positive words presented at the top of a screen and negative words presented at the bottom can change the way our brains work to understand things. In the primary task, 68 participants had to categorize words as positive or negative, as quickly as possible, when words would appear at the top or the bottom of a screen. The analytical approach involved comparing categorization times in regards of word positions (authors refer to a “General Linear Model”). Confounders like word length, or number of syllables were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that the speed of categorization of words would depend of their position on the screen (experiment 1), was supported by the results with a large (p. 18) effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.

    Users might process information faster if positive words are placed higher on the screen and negative words lower. Keep in mind that negative words may be harder to process for end users.

    Lakens, D. (2012). Polarity correspondence in metaphor congruency effects: Structural overlap predicts categorization times for bipolar concepts presented in vertical space. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(3), 726–736. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024955

    Original article | Public full text

  • Users may better perceive shapes that are associated with themselves

    ,

    In a study conducted in 2012, researchers investigated the way individuals perceive and recognize shapes associated with themselves, others, or neutral words.. In the primary task, 18 participants had to label different shapes as themselves, or a friend or a stranger, and later recognize if shapes and labels were correctly displayed. The analytical approach involved comparing mean reaction times for each matching judgement with ANOVAs. Confounders like right-handed and vision were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that shape recognition would be faster with prior self-association (experiment 1), was supported by the results with a large (p. 1107) effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.

    It is likely that using a specific shape as visual coding to represent the user will enhance the perception of that shape.

    Sui, J., He, X., & Humphreys, G. W. (2012). Perceptual effects of social salience: Evidence from self-prioritization effects on perceptual matching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(5), 1105–1117. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029792

    Original article | Public full text

  • Users may more clearly perceive the numbers associated with themselves

    ,

    In a study conducted in 2023, researchers investigated how individuals process stimuli associated with themselves versus strangers, particularly focusing on number symbols. In the primary task, 123 participants had to recognize numbers that was initially assigned to themselves or to strangers. The analytical approach involved comparing mean reaction times for different associations. Confounders like age and vision were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that numbers that was initially assigned to the self would be more quickly recognized, was supported by the results with a large (p. 1524) effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.

    It is likely that numbers somehow associated with a user will be more salient for that user.

    Keil, J., Barutchu, A., Desebrock, C., & Spence, C. (2023). More of me: Self-prioritization of numeric stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49(12), 1518–1533. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001165

    Original article | Public full text

Interested in contributing?

Feel free to share the link to an article along with any barely useful insights.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.