🧠 Psychological Cognitive Biases & Principles That Affect Your UX

With every new technological advancement, new constraints and possibilities are introduced.
This article is a collection of best practices that designers can consider when building user interfaces.
Sharing meaningful experiences will provide more support for psychological knowledge and contribute to making the world a better place.
An understanding of psychology-specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces-is perhaps the single most valuable non-design skill a designer can have.
Every time users interact with your product, they are:

So to improve your user experience, you need to understand the biases & heuristics affecting those four decision-cycle steps.
Below is a list of cognitive biases and design principles (with examples and tips) for each category. Let’s dive right in.

🙈 Filter the information

No. Name One-Liner Category
1 👀 Hick's Law More options leads to harder decisions Information
2 💼 Confirmation Bias People look for evidence that confirms what they think Information
3 👁 Priming Previous stimuli influence users' decision Information
4 🚛 Cognitive Load Total amount of mental effort that is required to complete a task Information
5 ⚓️ Anchoring Bias Users rely heavily on the first piece of information they see Information
6 👉 Nudge Subtle hints can affect users' decisions Information
7 🍰 Progressive Disclosure Users are less overwhelmed if they're exposed to complex features later Information
8 🎯 Fitts's Law Large and close elements are easier to interact with Information
9 🐠 Attentional Bias Users' thoughts filter what they pay attention to Information
10 🤝 Empathy Gap People underestimate how much emotions influence user behaviors Information
11 ⛵️ Visual Anchors Elements used to guide users' eyes Information
12 🌶 Von Restorff Effect People notice items that stand out more Information
13 🥇 Inverted Pyramid Users prefer receiving the most important information first, followed by details Information
14 🎖 Visual Hierarchy The order in which people perceive what they see Information
15 🔭 Selective Attention People filter out things from their environment when in focus Information
16 🕶 Banner Blindness Users tune out the stuff they get repeatedly exposed to Information
17 🍒 Juxtaposition Elements that are close and similar are perceived as a single unit Information
18 🚦 Signifiers Elements that communicate what they will do Information
19 🆚 Contrast Users' attention is drawn to higher visual weights Information
20 🚨 External Trigger When the information on what to do next is within the prompt itself Information
21 🕺 Decoy Effect Create a new option that's easy to discard Information
22 🎪 Centre-Stage Effect People tend to choose the middle option in a set of items Information
23 🖼 Framing The way information is presented affects how users make decisions Information
24 🍣 Law of Proximity Elements close to each other are usually considered related Information
25 🍬 Tesler's Law If you simplify too much, you'll transfer some complexity to the users Information
26 🧨 Spark Effect Users are more likely to take action when the effort is small Information
27 🥏 Feedback Loop When users take action, feedback communicates what happened Information
28 😻 Expectations Bias People tend to be influenced by their own expectations Information
29 🚆 Aesthetic-Usability Effect People perceive designs with great aesthetics as easier to use Information
30 ✈️ Survivorship Bias People neglect things that don't make it past a selection process Information
31 ⛰️ Interference Effect When multiple pieces of information compete, it can hinder memory retention Information
32 💡 Pygmalion Effect Higher expectations lead to improved performance, while lower expectations result in poorer outcomes Information
33 ⬛️ common-fate Users perceive elements that move in the same direction as being related or part of a group Information
34 🔗 Uniform Connectedness Users perceive elements that are visually connected as being more related than those that are not Information
35 🎨 Figure-Ground Users instinctively separate elements into the foreground (figure) and background (ground) Information
36 ➡️ Continuation Users follow lines or patterns naturally, assuming they continue in a consistent direction Information
37 🛤️ Desire Line Users tend to follow the path of least resistance or the route that naturally aligns with their goals Information

🔮 Seek the meaning of it

No. Name One-Liner Category
1 👥 Social Proof Users adapt their behaviors based on what others do Meaning
2 🦄 Scarcity People value things more when they're in limited supply Meaning
3 💭 Curiosity Gap Users have a desire to seek out missing information Meaning
4 🖲 Mental Model Users have a preconceived opinion of how things work Meaning
5 🌟 Familiarity Bias People prefer familiar experiences Meaning
6 ⚖️ Flexibility Tradeoffs People often overestimate how much flexibility they can have without sacrificing consistency or efficiency Meaning
7 👼 Halo Effect People judge things (or people) based on their feelings towards one trait Meaning
8 ☎️ Miller's Law Users can only keep 5±2 items in their working memory Meaning
9 🍱 Unit Bias One unit of something feels like the optimal amount Meaning
10 🕹 Skeuomorphism Users adapt more easily to things that look like real-world objects Meaning
11 🤝 Singularity Effect Users care disproportionately about an individual as compared to a group Meaning
12 🎁 Reciprocity People feel the need to reciprocate when they receive something Meaning
13 👑 Authority Bias Users attribute more importance to the opinion of an authority figure Meaning
14 🏺 Pseudo-Set Framing Tasks that are part of a group are more tempting to complete Meaning
15 🎰 Variable Reward People especially enjoy unexpected rewards Meaning
16 🎊 Group Attractiveness Effect Individual items seem more attractive when presented in a group Meaning
17 🚰 Curse of Knowledge Not realizing that people don't have the same level of knowledge Meaning
18 🎉 Aha! moment When new users first realize the value of your product Meaning
19 📮 Self-Initiated Triggers Users are more likely to interact with prompts they setup for themselves Meaning
20 ✏️ Survey Bias Users tend to skew survey answers towards what's socially acceptable Meaning
21 🎭 Cognitive Dissonance It's painful to hold two opposing ideas in our mind Meaning
22 🥅 Goal Gradient Effect Motivation increases as users get closer to their goal Meaning
23 💫 Feedforward When users know what to expect before they take action Meaning
24 🪒 Occam's Razor Simple solutions are often better than the more complex ones Meaning
25 🎗 Noble Edge Effect Users tend to prefer socially responsible companies Meaning
26 🧿 Hawthorne Effect Users change their behavior when they know they are being observed Meaning
27 🏒 Hindsight Bias People overestimate their ability to predict outcomes after the fact Meaning
28 🎏 Law of Similarity Users perceive a relationship between elements that look similar Meaning
29 🌓 Law of Prägnanz Users interpret ambiguous images in a simpler and more complete form Meaning
30 🐘 Streisand Effect When trying to censor information ends up increasing awareness of that information Meaning
31 🔦 Spotlight Effect People tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are Meaning
32 🌊 Flow State Being fully immersed and focused on a task Meaning
33 👁️ Mere Exposure Effect Repeated exposure to something makes users more likely to develop a preference for it Meaning

⏰ Act within a given time

No. Name One-Liner Category
1 🗓 Fresh Start Effect Users are more likely to take action if there's a feeling of new beginnings Time
2 ⚒️ Labor Illusion People value things more when they see the work behind them Time
3 ⚖️ Default Bias Users tend not to change an established behavior Time
4 🏦 Investment Loops When users invest themselves, they're more likely to come back Time
5 🕯 Loss Aversion People prefer to avoid losses more than earning equivalent gains Time
6 👞 Commitment & Consistency Users tend to be consistent with their previous actions Time
7 🏝 Sunk Cost Effect Users are reluctant to pull out of something they're invested in Time
8 🌛 Decision Fatigue Making a lot of decisions lowers users' ability to make rational ones Time
9 🌋 Reactance Users are less likely to adopt a behavior when they feel forced Time
10 🥽 Observer-Expectancy Effect When researchers' biases influence the participants of an experiment Time
11 🌱 Weber's Law Users adapt better to small incremental changes Time
12 🔨 Law of the Instrument If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail Time
13 🍭 Temptation Bundling Hard tasks are less scary when coupled with something users desire Time
14 🎈 Parkinson's Law The time required to complete a task will take as much time as allowed Time
15 🎩 Dunning-Kruger Effect People tend to overestimate their skills when they don't know much Time
16 🌤 Affect Heuristic People's current emotions cloud and influence their judgment Time
17 📉 Hyperbolic Discounting People tend to prioritize immediate benefits over bigger future gains Time
18 💳 Cashless Effect People spend more when they can't actually see the money Time
19 ⌚️ Chronoception People's perception of time is subjective Time
20 🌚 Self-serving bias People take credit for positive events and blame others if negative Time
21 🥬 Pareto Principle Roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes Time
22 🧠 Doherty Threshold Users feel more engaged when system responses are under 400ms Time

💾 Store bits of the interaction in their memories

No. Name One-Liner Category
1 🔍 Discoverability The ease with which users can discover your features Memory
2 🔫 Backfire Effect When people's convictions are challenged, their beliefs get stronger Memory
3 🌈 False Consensus Effect People overestimate how much other people agree with them Memory
4 🚋 Bandwagon Effect Users tend to adopt beliefs in proportion to others who have already done so Memory
5 📝 Barnum Effect When you believe generic personality descriptions apply specifically to you Memory
6 🐍 Second-Order Effect The consequences of the consequences of actions Memory
7 🛋 IKEA Effect When users partially create something, they value it way more Memory
8 📅 Planning Fallacy People tend to underestimate how much time a task will take Memory
9 🏕 Provide Exit Points Invite users to leave your app at the right moment Memory
10 🎢 Peak-End Rule People judge an experience by its peak and how it ends Memory
11 👅 Sensory Appeal Users engage more with things appealing to multiple senses Memory
12 🧩 Zeigarnik Effect People remember incomplete tasks better than completed ones Memory
13 🧤 Endowment Effect Users value something more if they feel it's theirs Memory
14 🛍 Chunking People remember grouped information better Memory
15 📸 Picture Superiority Effect People remember pictures better than words Memory
16 📌 Method of Loci People remember things more when they're associated with a location Memory
17 🧭 Shaping Incrementally reinforcing actions to get closer to a target behavior Memory
18 💚 Delighters People remember more unexpected and playful pleasures Memory
19 💛 Internal Trigger When users are prompted to take action based on a memory Memory
20 💾 Recognition Over Recall It's easier to recognize things than recall them from memory Memory
21 🏰 Storytelling Effect People remember stories better than facts alone Memory
22 👹 Negativity Bias Users recall negative events more than positive ones Memory
23 ⏰ Availability Heuristic Users favor recent and available information over past information Memory
24 🌌 Spacing Effect People learn more effectively when study sessions are spaced out Memory
25 🏁 Serial Position Effect It's easier for users to recall the first and last items of a list Memory
26 🌳 Depth of Processing The deeper users process information, the more likely they are to remember it Memory

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Last updated: 2026-10-20

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