The power of having a default option
Research has shown us consumers are more likely to choose default options. But, what is the right default to choose from all the choices?
Here is the fourth and last article in a series where I am exploring the architecture of choices. The first article gives you a hint about how this story began. The second article reviews the right number of options topic. The third article explores how options descriptions can influence the consumer decision. In this article, you will find out how I approach the principle of having a default option and what that should be.
Performance of the default on research
Research on different fields has shown us consumers are more likely to choose default options. If the visual appearance is the same for all options, a selected option by default increases the likelihood to be picked. And this will be true regardless of the number of choices we are presenting.
Having a default option is one of the most basic nudges we can incorporate in the architecture of choices. The users understand default options as normative or a good suggestion. They trust that is their best option among all of them. It is truly an inspiration for me the research Do Defaults Save Lives where the authors explore the impact of changing default options in policies could increase organs donations in the US. Default options are so critical they can lead to noticeable differences in decisions, with significant economic impact. For instance, Pichert & Katsikopoulos found that more consumers took the renewable energy option for electricity when it was the default option.
Another factor that helps default options performing so well is because it requires the user to take active action to select another option. If the user wants to pick a different option, he needs to be ready to deal with the cost of this action. He needs to understand if those costs are better than the benefits of simple choose the default one. For instance, the cognitive effort implicit for changing a decision could be a cost.
In economics, we have another prominent factor called loss aversion that helped us benefit from a default option. Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer to avoid losses to acquiring equivalent gains. This factor is so influential that research has suggested that losses are twice as persuasive, psychologically, as gains.
Pick the right default
With these elements sustaining our discussions, it was easy to have a mutual agreement. We will have a selected option on our screen. The hard part was to figure out what that options should be.
From a pure UX point of view, you are always looking for the user needs and fulfil them in your work. Here, the obvious choice was to have the default option that allows the user to move forward without insurance. Select insurance it is not mandatory to complete the flow. It is the option that demands less cognitive effort to the user and implies fewer losses.
From a business view, the bank wants to sell as many insurances as possible on this screen. The business owners assume right away we would have one of the insurance solutions as a default option to increase the chances to sell them. They also would prefer to hide as a footnote the choice to move forward without insurance.
We end up with one of the insurances selected but not the most expensive one. Also, positioning the default option in the middle and the “no insurance” option on the left. We make sure the user would see first the “no insurance” option since we are talking about users that read from left to right. The effort to move their choice and move forward without insurance as a relatively small cognitive effort. For sure, less than making the opposite move.
Conclusion
In the end, we were able to offer to our users a screen that was very clear and easy to understand. With three main options and all the information, the regular users may need to make their decisions in a conscient way. We also included a trigger to display more data for the most experienced users on the banking topics to explore and took their time to analyse the options.
At the same time, we avoid using dark patterns to trick the user. By having the option to move forward without insurance at the same level, we honoured the user needs. And in this specific flow, that should be concluding the personal loan and getting their brand new electronic equipment. Even with a middle option with an insurance suggestion already chosen, we assumed that our final solutions gave the user enough transparency and freedom of choice.
Do you have similar experiences with the choice architecture in your projects? I would love to ear them and how you tackle these challenges!
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References
Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness.
Johnson, E.J.; Goldstein, D.G. (2003). Do Defaults Save Lives? (PDF). Science. 302 (5649): 1338–1339. doi:10.1126/science.1091721. PMID 14631022. S2CID 166476782.
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1992). Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. 5 (4): 297–323. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.320.8769. doi:10.1007/BF00122574. S2CID 8456150.
Pichert, D.; Katsikopoulos, K.V. (2008). Green defaults: information presentation and pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 28: 63–73. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2007.09.004.
