A client called me in to review onboarding new customers which involved filling out a registration form.
At first glance, the form looked reasonable:
- Had a reasonable number of form fields – not too many
- The Form Labels (titles) were fine
- It had a call-to-action button
- It required two consent checkboxes
Yet I immediately knew the form would underperform.
However, this example highlights a much deeper observation about customer experience design and why many digital experiences underperform.
The Core Observation
Most people evaluate forms and digital experiences based on what they can see. But in the context of producing journeys that activate a high rate of completion requires a deep level of evaluation for…
What people think, how they react and what they experience while trying to progress through a journey.
This takes the method of diagnosing and enhancing journey to a new level.
For the form example, there are numerous anxious moments people have when filling out a new form for the first time. Some examples…
- Am I completing this correctly?
- What happens next when I select the button?
- What happens if I make a mistake?
- Why are they asking for this information?
- Can I trust this from with my personal details process?
Every one of these questions introduces friction and cognitive load. Those are the fancy terms, to a human its anxiety and risk.
The Real Problem
The issue is not forms, design or AI.
The real issue is digital experiences force customers into unnecessary conscious evaluation. In other words, the subconscious mind, which should be in control, is replaced with the human brain activating to complete tasks.
The moment the subconscious mind (your mental autopilot) loses control to the conscious mind, momentum is halted.
Harvard Medicine supports this with research proving that around 95% of successful online buying journeys are completed when the subconscious mind is in control. Click here to see this research.
Over time I started noticing the same pattern across ecommerce, SaaS, banking, insurance and customer onboarding journeys.
The businesses that performed best weren't necessarily using better technology.
They were better at helping people progress towards an outcome without creating unnecessary friction.
I now refer to this as Momentum Science.
The Momentum Science Perspective
Customers should not be forced to repeatedly stop, evaluate and reconsider their actions.
The best digital experiences allow people to progress naturally towards an outcome.
Not because the journey is simple.
But because complexity has been intentionally removed.
This method transcends online retail. It applies to any digital journey that meets the need of a human.
It can be a B2B journey
People looking for the right life insurance policy or a home mortgage.
Booking flights or a holiday.
Someone signing up to an enterprise SaaS system.
The scenarios are endless, but the momentum science principles remain unchanged.
Why Momentum Science Matters
Many organisations focus on:
- User Interface Design
- Visual Design
- Website Features
These elements are a piece to a bigger puzzle and partly addresses the visible layer of the experience.
The behavioural layer is where success or failure occurs.
This encompasses…
- Behavioural psychology
- Trust creation
- Anxiety reduction
- Elegant error recovery
- The creation of forward and intuitive backward journeys
- Decision simplification
- Contextual guidance
- Reduction in physical and mental effort (interaction cost)
The customer experience exists across all these elements simultaneously.
The AI Observation – Blessing or Curse
AI-generated customer experiences highlight an important challenge.
AI can generate:
- Screens
- Page Layouts
- Components
However, AI does not understand:
- Customer behavioural psychology in the context of digital journeys
- What motivates people to act when they have intent
- Recognizing there are various types and levels of intent
- Commercial objectives
- Customer pain points
Businesses find the customer-centric dynamics too hard to figure out and hope AI can do it for them.
This notion becomes a “blessing” in the context that it gives the perception it is doing the heavy lifting for a business. It’s an AI “curse” because these systems can’t do it on its own.
AI needs to be supported by Momentum Science.
Customer experience design is less about what customers see and is more about managing the amount of conscious thought required to reach an end defined by a human.
The COVID Observation:
During COVID many commentators claimed customer behaviour had changed. I disagree!
The technology and the channels changed.
Human needs remained remarkably consistent. People still wanted confidence, trust, guidance and reassurance.
A great example was seen with luxury retailers who famously leveraged Facebook's Facetime to deliver one on one remote selling experiences. This technology, launched in 2015, was able to deliver on the trust and guidance needs.
Momentum Science exists because these human needs don't change nearly as fast as technology.
Conclusion – The Physical Sales Experience
Think back to a moment in time where you engaged with a physical salesperson that was so enjoyable you didn’t want it to end.
The salesperson…
- Spoke your language and did not use confusing jargon.
- Gave you the right information after you asked questions – so it felt like you were in control of the experience – and it felt personal to you.
- The way the information was presented was easy to understand.
- All the information provided made your decision-making process easy.
- Provided multiple methods to purchase and take home the product.
While the above experience felt personal and unique to you, the salesperson delivers a very similar version of that same experience hundreds of times before. And will continue to do the same hundreds of times in the future!
They understand the behavioural patterns of people that produce the succesulf end of a sales experience for people.
Those same behavioural patterns can be designed into digital experiences. This is Momentum Science, the act of humanising digital journeys.
In summary, technology changes rapidly, and human behaviour changes slowly.
Momentum Science exists to understand the patterns that help people move forward.
Put simply: Humanising Digital Journeys.
This article was as tagged as AI eCommerce , Best Practice , Digital Strategy , eCommerce Consulting , UX Design