How Amazon, Netflix and Google use behavioural science to simplify the user experience

Richard Chataway

Explores how the major digital companies are able to leverage their knowledge of consumer behaviour by continually experimenting towards better user experiences – and how any enterprise can use similar experimentation to learn.

Definitions

Behavioural science: The study of human decision-making, incorporating insights from behavioural economics, social psychology, and other related disciplines.

System 1 decision-making: As coined by Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, this is the term for decision-making that is fast, instinctual and largely unconscious, as opposed to the other method, System 2, which is slower, and requires more mental effort and time.

Choice satisficing: Coined by economist Herbert Simon, this means making a choice based on what is good enough, rather than seeking the best option possible (‘maximizing’), thereby saving cognitive effort (thinking).

Behavioural economics

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