If you have any calendar entry of a restaurant reservation on your smartphone, Google Now is ready to enrich your experience by telling you about the travel time and great spots for photography. What Google Now is actually doing? Giving you solutions to the issues you have not thought about yet and allowing you to focus on what is important, hence saving you time.

Other than Google Now, Amazon, Spotify, Facebook, and many other websites use users’ personal data to present relevant information, hence helping them in better decision making. Facebook presents relevant news, ads; whereas, Amazon recommends relevant products to the users. Such a kind of website design is termed anticipatory design. According to Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge, in an anticipatory design, a designer is responsible to simplify the processes for the end users while minimizing the difficulty and making decisions on users’ behalf. This design pattern lowers the number of decisions users have to make by automating the process in user interfaces and reaching a better outcome.

Anticipatory Design

Anticipatory design is a design method in which the system predicts the needs of the user and performs tasks in his or her interest, often before any decision or request has been made. It creates a smoother, more personalized experience with reduced cognitive load and increased satisfaction through the use of data and insights on user behavior.

For example, consider an e-commerce platform that would recommend products based on previously viewed pages or a navigation application that suggested routes based on usual travel patterns. These designs anticipate what the user might want or need and present the solutions in front of them before they even have to ask.

Factors Why Anticipatory Design is the Right Choice

To understand why anticipatory design is becoming increasingly essential, let’s explore the key factors that make it the right choice for building better UIs.

User Centered Decision

The web world has brought marketplaces at the doorstep. Shopping online is easier than ever before. However, the overwhelming list of options can make the experience daunting. According to Hick’s law, “Every additional choice increases the time required to make a decision.” More are the options tougher would be the decision-making. Therefore, to help users in improved decision-making, an anticipatory UI design with an honest approach can play its part. There is no doubt that such an interface is needed of the hour for a better user experience.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

For a better user experience, the number of choices presented to the user needs to be reduced so that only the most relevant list appears to support an improved decision. This can be done in two ways:

• Relevancy Wins: Individual preferences can be used to present limited options of the relevant products in front of a user. Amazon uses this strategy for relevant email recommendations and website product presentations.

• Anticipate What Users May Need: Google Now is one such example where users may get help in areas they have not asked for but may need at some time. Similarly, Spotify creates playlists for users, searching for any new music and adding them to the playlist. Such an approach is termed as anticipatory while deciding on users’ behalf.

Improved User Satisfaction and Trust

While the anticipatory design is helpful for a better user experience, but trust factor can be questionable. Dark patterns used in designing the interfaces to trick the users will create distrust. Users may be forced to do the things they really do not want to do, ultimately leading to a poor experience and a quick exit from the website. Using light patterns to keep things transparent and users well informed about any decision and action can be the way to go while building better UIs for better UX.

Contextual Recommendations

If users are presented with limited information, they might come across the same type of content repeatedly. It will make discovering new things tougher. On Facebook, if you are a video lover and watch many videos over there, you will come across more videos. However, if you click on links, you will see more links recommended by Facebook. By not showing all the posts, instead of picking the selected ones, Facebook is trying to reinforce users’ presumptions.

 Personalization and Customization

In the era of technology, users expect experiences in line with their tastes and behaviors. Anticipatory design significantly contributes to personalization because it uses data to infer what might be useful to users. Users will feel in command if they see what they want to see. This could be done by an effective feedback mechanism. Facebook, Amazon, and Google are actively using some kind of feedback mechanism as part of better user interface for enhanced user experience. Google Now users can quickly respond whether the information presented was relevant or not. Amazon and Facebook users have to follow a difficult path to tell whether to improve recommendations or hide news respectively.

Challenges and Considerations

While anticipatory design offers numerous advantages, it’s important to approach it with caution:

Avoid Advertising

If advertising is done in the disguise of content, it will make the anticipatory decisions suspected. Google Maps uses pins as disguised ads. Google Now is collaborating with different brands to present their services when the users need them. Although these offered services can be helpful for the users, the paid ads can be distracting. Such kind of dark pattern in UI design should be avoided as it is unethical and adds to poor user experience.

Privacy Concerns

Information from pre-populated forms can be used for accurate assumptions about users. If a user wants a website to remember credit card details or even passwords, it tells the way the user will be back there. Users might not want to repeat the process of filling in the basic information on any form.In any form of anticipatory design, privacy is one of the most critical concerns, as it involves the use of data from its users. Always be open in terms of the data you collect and help users experience a feeling that they are in control of their information.

Adaptive Interfaces

Although most of the time users like to see recommendations, if they do not like them, allow them to opt out. Google Now allows users to disable the app whereas Amazon needs the logout action to turn off recommendations.

Conclusion

It is obvious that with so many choices available online, users feel good to get recommendations as per their taste that is the theme behind anticipatory UI design patterns. However, the real thing is the sense of ethics behind any app offering users support to make improved decisions. If the UI carries no dark patterns, but light patterns, which means the things are transparent and honest, users will surely like the suggestions or recommendations made as assumptions by the app or website. Go Globe web design company is expert in making such user centered Anticipatory design and delivering best results .

For an enhanced user experience, the trust factor needs to be maintained throughout the UI design process. Users should have complete control of what they want to see and what they do not want. Be fair in what you are presenting in front of the users because happy and satisfied users will be the repeat customers and customers should come first for sure success in the web world.

FAQs

1. What are some common anticipatory design patterns?

Some of the common patterns include predictive search, smart defaults, contextual recommendations, proactive notifications, and adaptive interfaces.

2. How do smart defaults work in anticipatory design?

Smart defaults prefill options based on user behavior or common choices, which reduces efforts users should make to complete tasks.

3. Can anticipatory design be implemented in mobile apps?

Yes, the application of anticipatory design can be applied to mobile apps with features such as context-aware notifications, predictive text, and adaptive layouts.

4. How do I ensure anticipatory design doesn’t overwhelm users?

Keep things simple and clear. Probably this will avoid the excesses of overwhelming the user with too many predictions or options. Make sure that predictions are relevant and helpful.

5. What role does data play in anticipatory design?

Information that can be derived from data regarding user behavior and preferences could enable designers to make very accurate predictions in order to deliver personally relevant experiences. 

6. How can anticipatory design impact user decision-making?

It facilitates better decisions by reducing the number of choices a user has to make and also by only presenting relevant choices according to the context.