Perceived cost-benefit and (online) behavior

Often I hear these broad blanket statements on what people do or don’t do online: "people don’t read," "people don’t scroll," "people don’t wait." Usually these declarations come from people who have just enough knowledge of usability to be dangerous, but, alas, I’ve heard even usability practitioners uttering them. When I hear statements like those I usually slowly count to 10 to regain self-control and then I say: "Well, let’s talk about it."

So, let’s talk about it.

Do people read online? – Of course people read online. Don’t you go online to get your news? Aren’t you reading this blog post online? You read content online all the times. But even a more specific statement such as "people don’t read instructions online" is incorrect.

First of all, not many people read instructions, whether online or in print. This is why when any instruction take more than a few pages, smart technical writers have created these handy one-page Quick Start guides. Most people read manuals when they are in trouble, not to learn how to use something. (I am one of those few peple who sometimes read the entire manual before starting to use the thing; but then, I used to read the dictionary for fun, so you can see where a lot of my psychological problems come from.)

For example, if you observe people filling out forms–online and off-line–you’ll see that the most common strategy is first trying to complete the form without using text instructions (but using other important written pieces of information like field labels, formatting tips, and examples); only in case of uncertainty or failure, people go back to read written instructions.

There are plenty of exception to the "avoid reading until absolutely necessary" rule, though. I’ve frequently seen people reading with great attention seemingly irrelevant blocks of text, even lengthy ones, both online and in print.

There are many reasons why people read or not read text. But there is a simple way of thinking about it that is more sophisticated and useful than a simplistic, black-and-white statement like "people don’t read."

Cost-benefit assessments drive behavior – People make decisions continuously on what to do and what not to do. When a person is in front of a form, he or she can decide to read any piece of content, read only part of it, scan for relevant information, or start filling out information right away. We can think of the decision at each point in time as determined by an analysis of the perceived cost-benefit based on the person’s goals, constraints, and previous experience. If the perceived effort in performing an action is higher than the perceived benefit, the person will not perform the action; and vice versa.

Let’s consider for example a person filling out a simple form. If the label of the first field reads "Enter your name" she would probably skip long text instructions and glance at the example showing the order of first and last name to understand how to fill out the form. The apparent simplicity of the action and the low probability of error doesn’t justify the effort required to read the instructions.

But let’s assume that the person encounters something less familiar and more complicated. If the strategy of relying only on labels and examples doesn’t work, she would probably go back to the written instructions to understand what to do. If the perceived cost of making a mistake or being unable to complete the form is higher than the perceived cost of reading the instructions, the person will read the instructions.

The way the text is presented also influences the perceived cost of reading it. A bulletted list of short sentences is better that a long continuous paragraph because the perceived cost of reading it is lower.

Influencing the perceived cost of reading – There are many strategies to decrease the perceived cost of reading text. For example, highlighting keywords in bold supports rapid scanning, which is a more efficient alternative to word-by-word reading. Font type and size, spacing, and other typographic factors all influence the perceived effort of reading text. (Incidentally, they also influence the perceived importance and relevance of each piece of text, which in turn influence the likelihood that someone would read it.)

This means that designers can influence the likelihood that people will read or not read text; they control the visual characteristics that determine the perceived effort required to read it.

The quality of content, of course, is what eventually determines whether people will read or not and how much people will read. Is it the right content? Is it relevant to the reader? Is it concise and clear as it could be (in other words, is it respectful of the reader)? Is it useful?

Trust and risk – Non-design factors such as trust or risk also enter in the cost-benefit equations. For example, I am currently testing a print form for an important financial transaction that is associated with a certain level of concern and preoccupation. I’ve never seen so many people reading the small print and spending so much time trying to understand the instructions. In this case, reading is perceived as less costly than making a mistake in filling out the form and risking errors and delay in the processing of their request.

The influence of perceived risk might also explain why people seem more inclined to read instructional text in print than online. Experience teaches that if one makes an error on an online form, one will probably receive an error message; if one skips a mandatory field, he or she will be unable to continue to the next page. It’s as if somebody is looking behind our shoulders and checking our work at each page. With a printed form, we are on our own. If we make a mistake, nobody will point it out to us. So we’d better be careful.

The probability that people would read the "fine print" seems to be inversely correlated with the trust they have in the company they are dealing with. What I typically hear is something like: "I don’t need to read all this. I’ve always trusted them," versus "I don’t know them very well, I’d better read what I am signing for."

Putting all together – One thing that I like about this way of conceptualizing behavior is that it recognizes that people’s behavior is intelligent and driven by efficiency. If people don’t read my instructions is not because they are stupid or lazy, but because I am: I’ve written or visually presented instructions in a way that conveys an effort greater than the benefit to read it. I’ve not spent time understanding people’s goals, motivations, and constraints. It also means that I can do something to fix the problem, by changing the perceived cost-benefit balance in my favor.