UX Bites #20 — Headspace, Zomato & more... (Free)

Hey 👋,

We’re back with another 5 moments of UX magic from the week.

Plus, I’m trying something new: there’s a “try it yourself” exercise at the end of this email.

Something to kickstart your UX engine into gear.

1. That was kind of you

After referring a friend and giving them a free trial, Headspace will frame your action positively, and remind you of the benefits of the service.

The less important aspect of this is the "being kind" stuff—that’s very forgettable.

More importantly, this reminds you about the benefits of Headspace.

It'd be like telling someone about Built for Mars, and seeing a message "Well done, now they'll be great at UX too".

It’s a subtle way of making you think "oh yeah, I'm getting better at UX myself".

2. Social proof + milestones

This habit-breaking app will show upcoming targets, framed with social proof of how many other users are about to hit that same milestone.

3. Recording a podcast

When recording a session on Riverside, you'll see a reassuring notification that the recorded quality will be higher than what you're seeing live.

This helps avoid the "oh, you're kind of blurry, let me check my internet" preamble, as Riverside records locally from both devices.

4. Nudging towards healthier options

Food delivery app Zomato will suggest healthier options, and let you replace those items in a single click.

To be clear, this might have negative effects for the life cycle of the user.

For example, people may feel guiltier using this app to order tasty (but unhealthy) food, and so just opt for a guilt-free alternative instead.

5. Specialists not generalists

When searching for help with something, (e.g. furniture assembly), Taskrabbit dynamically shows metadata relevant to that specific task.

Now it’s your turn 🫵

When reacting to a live stream on YouTube, you'll see a waterfall of emojis, and yours will be marked with a background circle.

But why is this so important? Think about it, and scroll to the end.

Clue: what would the experience be like without this?

Plus, since the last Bite email, I’ve curated new moments of UX greatness from Monzo, BBC Good Food, Slack, BetterStack, Granola, Superlist, Clear, Intercom and many more.

These include things like:

• How Foodvisor uses a roadmap to help a user visualise their fitness journey.

• Soundcloud’s bouncing audio levels, designed to get you curious.

• Why Hevy tell you that you’ve lifted an entire bus.

• How Wiser help frame your long term goals.

• How Intercom uses progress bars in their email onboarding.

Answer to the YouTube Bite: 🙌

This helps to make the reward for ‘reacting’ greater, as you can feel some ownership over the difference you made.

Without this, you might not even be able to notice if the button is doing anything, and I imagine fewer people would use reactions in general.

As always, thanks for reading. New BFM+ Cheatsheet out next week.

- Peter