I personally believe that cognitive biases are extremely important in the practice of Service Designers. Okay, they sound great and pretty serious. But what are they? Cognitive biases systematically show how people use irrationality in their thinking and decision-making process. Wikipedia defines them in these words: “systematic pattern[s] of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment”.

It is in 1972 that Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman brought the term “Cognitive Biases” to life.

Today, I found a list of a little more than 200 cognitive biases that have been described. I personally believe that understanding how people systemically think and make decisions across cultures is something that every Service Designer should study. Indeed, you can create better products and services by using cognitive biases or helping people overcome them.

In 2017, I wrote an article in the Service Design Magazine about the power of such biases. Here is an extract:

“In 1950, cake mixes were invented and put on the market. Buyers could bake a cake super quickly at home with these pre-prepared mixes. But at first, they failed. Many homemakers were resistant because the instant mixes made cooking ‘too easy,’ which made their labor and skill feel ‘undervalued.’

After finding this out, the makers of the cake mixes added an extra step. Consumers now had to break an egg and add it to the mix. And now cake mixes increased their sales.”

This story is about the cognitive bias called the “IKEA effect”. It was discovered by Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely and was described by them as follows: “Labor alone can be sufficient to induce greater liking for the fruits of one’s labor: even constructing a standardized bureau, an arduous, solitary task, can lead people to overvalue their (often poorly constructed) creations.”

This article is part of the book "A Tiny History of Service Design, " a tiny two-hour read that goes through the historical events that created what Service Design is today.