Match the User's Expectations

Users possess expectations when they visit a page.

And your page should match these expectations.

Why It Works

• Processing Fluency. Any contradiction feels unpleasant, and they attribute these negative feelings to your content.

How to Apply

• Choose Colors That Are Semantically Meaningful. Green for good actions; red for bad actions.

• Show the Primary Essence Upon Loading. If users click a "pricing" page, what do they expect to see? Prices. Well, show them prices upon loading the page.

• Adhere to a Consistent Layout. Any adjustments will contradict their expected interactions.

Caveats

• Distinctive Products. A gourmet cheese was preferred with disfluency (e.g., complex font) because it felt distinctive (Pocheptsova et al., 2010). Customers who want special high-end products will be searching for distinctive cues. Their expectation is unexpectedness, so it's okay to break common patterns to satisfy their desire for something different.
• Product Exploration. You prefer familiar products in common grids, yet unfamiliar products in unexpected patterns because you need to break away from habitual decision factors (Walter et al., 2020). Some platforms (e.g., Netflix) might benefit from atypical catalogs that nudge certain users toward less familiar content.

• Pocheptsova, A., Labroo, A. A., & Dhar, R. (2010). Making products feel special: When metacognitive difficulty enhances evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(6), 1059-1069.
• Walter, M., Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., & Herrmann, A. (2020). Mixing it up: Unsystematic product arrangements promote the choice of unfamiliar products. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(3), 509-526.