[Myth] Users make optimal choices

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Myth #15: Users make optimal choices

In an ideal world, users would scan through your entire page to find the very piece of information they’re looking for, but research shows this is not the case. Usability tests prove that people tend to choose the first somewhat reasonable choice that catches their eyes.

That is, once they come across a link whose label refers even a little to what they’ve come for, they’ll click it. This is due to their experience that guessing wrong and hitting the back button is still more efficient than reading a whole page to find an exact match.

This behaviour, known as satisficing, is a well-known decision-making strategy in psychology.

How users make decisions on the web:

Source: uxmyths