UI/UX Psychology Tricks in Real Products

Keep users entertained and hooked

Netflix consistently offers users something to watch, even when you haven’t actively searched for it. By autoplaying trailers when you dwell on the title, Netflix ensures that users remain engaged and entertained.

Associate use with positive feelings

Spotify Wrapped highlights how listeners compare to others, creating a sense of social status and leadership. These positive feelings are directly tied to listening habits on Spotify, which promote future use.

Simplify onboarding to improve conversion

Netflix optimizes its landing page using these key UI/UX psychology tricks:

• Focusing attention on one main action

• Asking as little as possible in the first step

• Giving a “safety net” to the users

Engineer pricing plans presentation

Squarespace uses the decoy effect to promote sales of more expensive options. As you can see in the image below, the Pro plan exceeds needs but seems like an amazing deal compared to the starter/free option.

This subtle but powerful trick increases the shift toward more expensive options.

Reward commitment and use

Snapchat rewards users with big streaks, trophies, and milestone celebrations. Users take pride and even compete in having long Snapchat streaks. Losing a big streak is so disappointing that it almost obliges users to continue using the app daily.

This is one of the most effective UI/UX tricks for driving consistent daily engagement.

Tap into the user’s emotions

Airbnb highlights the most visually appealing accommodations to evoke the excitement that comes with travel. This visual appeal inspires users to plan trips and book stays.

Help users succeed

Airbnb focuses on host and guest education to improve the overall user experience.

Airbnb host education:

• How to treat guests.

• How to make accommodations guest-friendly.

• How to enhance the accommodation experience.

Guest education:

• Follow accommodation rules to receive better ratings from hosts

Better host and guest collaboration means:

• Better stay experience

• Higher ratings

• Promoted future use

• Airbnb earns more

Conclusion

These examples show how UI/UX psychology tricks are used by top products to influence user behavior, simplify experiences, and drive engagement. From rewarding streaks to evoking emotions, these strategies show the impact of small yet powerful psychological cues.