False memory

Cartoon bij 'false memory' bias

Blogpost 4 van de serie over ‘cognitive biases’. In 2019 blogde ik een tijd op medium.com: elke bias op de lange lijst op wikipedia kreeg een UX-gerelateerd stukje en een cartoon. Ik ben niet tot Z geraakt (je mag zelf invullen aan welke bias dat lag). Nadat ik medium.com heb opgezegd zijn de blogposts naar mijn eigen website verplaatst.


Memorizing is an art form. We do not recall our lives, we create our own story. And because we’re perfectionists, the first draft is never good enough. We polish and edit the story our whole lives, without ever noticing that we change the script.

We can change the scenery, the people and objects involved, the order of events.. Anything goes, when we recollect our past. We even can remember things that have never happened to us, the so-called ‘false memory bias’: “ when a person recalls something that did not occur”

So memories of an experience can change. Bad user experiences can kill good memories quite fast, good experiences can soften bad ones. For example: I had a quite disturbing experience with a bank, so I decided to take my money elsewhere. But the ‘goodbye’ service of the old company was so much better than the ‘hello’ service of the new bank that I’m still not quite happy with my decision. Because of a friendly goodbye, my perception changed. Now that’s powerful design..

The best way to influence the perception of your brand online therefore is to design your services right: from the very first moment till the very end.