UX and Psychology: the IKEA Effect in Digital Products

Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to get rid of a piece of furniture you assembled yourself, even when it looks outdated or stops being functional? If this has happened to you, you're not alone: it's the IKEA effect's fault!

Despite the name, and the example, the IKEA effect has little to do with furniture. Let's find out together what it is and how it affects your digital product.

What is the IKEA effect

In 2012, a study by Norton, Mochon and Ariely made a groundbreaking, if intuitive, discovery: the tendency to attribute greater value to objects we've built ourselves. What's more: the value attributed was comparable to that attributed to objects built by experts.

In practice, what the IKEA effect describes is a psychological effect whereby whatever requires our effort, like assembling a piece of furniture from the famous yellow-and-blue furniture company, binds us more closely to the product.

Some cases of the IKEA effect

The principle is also demonstrated in different areas than furniture assembly (or lego and origami, as in the original experiment). In fact, it seems to be behind the success of products from popular brands, for example Build-A-Bear, the famous American giant that lets its customers stuff and dress the plush toys they buy.

But we can also think of examples from everyday life. If, for example, we cook a dish using produce from our own garden, we'll definitely want our dinner guests to know about it. And yet, wouldn't it have been easier to just buy the produce at the supermarket? Yes, but having grown the plant, harvested its fruit, and finally brought it to the table automatically makes the dish taste better.

There's a limit to everything

So regardless of the outcome, will something be perceived as better just because we made it? Not quite. For the effect to occur, the construction must be completed successfully.

According to the study mentioned above, in fact, if the task is interrupted halfway through, or doesn't end in success, the bond with the product drops drastically. For example, in one phase of the study, participants were asked to stop assembling a piece of furniture before it was finished; in that case, the IKEA effect didn't occur.

On the other hand, even when the construction is completed successfully but requires minimal effort, for example assembling a single element, the conditions for the effect to occur are missing.

The IKEA effect in UX

One of the sacred principles of UX is trying to eliminate all friction between the user and the application. We've talked about this in various articles: when we design an application, our goal is to make it extremely easy to use, whatever the device it's meant for.

The IKEA effect flips this view: a small amount of initial friction, one the user can overcome and aimed at product personalization, can:

• Increase the sense of belonging and engagement
• Make people appreciate the product more
• In some cases, contribute to willingness-to-pay

How to apply the IKEA effect to UX

But how can we get the user to personalize their own product? There are several sections that lend themselves well to being left in the user's hands. Some examples are:

• Customizable dashboards: the user chooses what to see on their own dashboard, depending on which sections they use most often.
• Onboarding preferences: the selection can involve interests or specific usage aspects.
• Goal selection: in learning or training apps, users can select individual goals.
• Choosing an avatar: being able to choose how to be represented increases user engagement.

We at Mabiloft also apply this principle to our applications. For example, in SuSheet, our app for ordering at sushi restaurants, users can choose their avatar from various available icons, and even expand their choices with a purchasable pack.

When personalization becomes a barrier

There are many famous, successful cases of the IKEA effect being applied well:

• Spotify asks you to select a few artists you like when you sign up, so it can suggest targeted playlists right away
• On Duolingo, besides being able to create an avatar in your own image, you can indicate your starting level in the language you want to study.
• Notion lets you personalize your own boards, with maximum flexibility in layout and widget use.

But asking for this kind of involvement doesn't always work. It actually becomes a problem when the user is forced to configure everything. If the setup goes on forever and, rather than an onboarding, the user ends up building the app from scratch, the effect obtained is the opposite one: the user feels frustrated and abandons it.

How to make the IKEA effect work, without losing users

If the goal is to engage the user rather than get in their way, it's a good idea to follow a few guidelines, simple but effective, which keep the user from abandoning ship partway through, losing the desired effect.

First of all, calibrate the difficulty: the user's contribution needs to be meaningful, so you can't ask them for something too simple, but at the same time it shouldn't become an impossible task either.

It's also important that whatever the user decides on their own is visible: the value of the user's contribution also depends on their being able to enjoy their own work. For example, if the personalization involves choosing goals but these don't actually affect the user's journey in the app, the sense of effectiveness disappears completely.

Lastly, the user's choice needs to have meaning: if they don't feel like they've contributed something to the application, it'll be a choice like any other, and the sense of belonging we're aiming for won't emerge.

We've seen, then, that users don't always look for the shortest path; they often look for experiences that feel like their own. Can your application be personalized by users? Tell us your take on the IKEA effect.