{"id":109478,"date":"2024-09-27T11:35:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T18:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/?post_type=insights&p=109478"},"modified":"2025-05-20T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T19:53:11","slug":"priming","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/insights\/priming\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Leverage The Priming & Expectation Setting Heuristic To Drive Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever gotten through the end of a tediously long shopping process only to get hit at checkout with a shipping fee that doubles your cart cost? Or have you tried to sign up for an online account that forced you to download an additional app to access the service?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like a company is giving you the bait and switch. In user experience design, we call this poor priming and expectation-setting, and it is a violation of one of the six Heuristics for Digital Experience Optimization\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heuristics, by definition, are mental shortcuts<\/a> used to solve problems quickly and effectively. They allow people to speed up analysis and make informed, efficient decisions. Knowing our brains are wired to take shortcuts and make quick decisions, you can imagine how heuristics play a crucial role in how customers navigate and perceive digital experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Digital experiences that violate user heuristics are bad for users and bad for business. So, let\u2019s take a look at how to address the priming and expectation-setting heuristic in a way that improves the user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the priming and expectation-setting heuristic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Priming and expectation setting is a heuristic that sets users up for success by clarifying how the interface will perform, indicating what actions users should take, and managing user expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital experiences that adhere to this heuristic may apply a tactic like explicitly mentioning free shipping early in the journey to reduce cart abandonment rates or sharing estimated delivery dates to manage customer expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priming and expectation setting is one of the six Heuristics of Digital Experience Optimization\u2122<\/a> developed by our team at The Good. The full list includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Priming & Expectation Setting<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Trust & Authority<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Ease<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Benefits & Unique Selling Points<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Directional Guidance<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Incentives<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These heuristics theme common optimization issues and opportunities. Analyzing your digital experience with heuristics in mind keeps the user at the center of analyses and guides your strategy toward building journeys that feel familiar, do what they say, and function intuitively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Identify violations of this heuristic with user research patterns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Before you can start to address any heuristic to improve the digital experience, you have to understand if, where, and when users are getting stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To understand if your digital experience is violating the priming and expectation-setting heuristic, a great place to start is user research<\/a>. Set goals, pick the right method for your needs, and start talking to your users (or observing their behavior).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As you analyze the research, look for patterns including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • Rage clicks<\/strong>: User clicks on an element multiple times without getting the desired or expected result. Usually, this signifies unclear system status, meaning your user doesn’t provide enough cues, semantics, or timely feedback to keep users informed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Low directness<\/strong>: Users can be seen scrolling through the site looking for specific content, struggling to find items of interest, and possibly hesitating on the site, suggesting uncertainty. This can be a sign of unmet expectations, meaning your system’s interactions, navigation, or language don’t match users’ mental models of real-world or site conventions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Price sensitivity<\/strong>: Users express concern about product or shipping prices, potentially leading them to abandon. This often indicates poor priming because of unclear or missing elements in the interface that typically guide user behavior and inform them of what to expect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The good news is once you identify the patterns, you can address them with tactics to improve priming and expectation setting. Doing so is an ethical way to improve customer sentiment<\/a> and increase conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n