Design is a quest to find the best possible match between the user’s mental model that they have in their mind, and the conceptual model that you’re presenting to them with your product.

These two models run through all resolutions of design — everything from developing a product system to crafting a single button. Understanding how they work together will help you design products that users can easily understand.

What is a mental model?

A ‘mental model’ refers to a user’s underlying expectations about how something should work. It’s formed based on what they already do, prior experiences with similar products, or by assumptions they’ve made based on how it appears (also known as perceived affordances).

Understanding and designing for a mental model involves uncovering a deeper understanding of the motivations, thought processes, and emotional state of your users — independent of your product.

For example:

• Booking a flight — You have a basic expectation of what steps you will take, and the information you’ll need along the way.
• A chat app — You expect that messages will go back and fourth in real time, and that you can also send attachments like photos and GIFS. You expect to be notified as soon as someone has replied to you.
• Driving a car — You have expectations of what the main things you can interact with are, what the car is capable of doing, and how to appropriately drive it in your country.

It’s important to remember that a person’s mental model is constantly evolving and subject to change. It’s influenced by new experiences with your product, other technologies, and day to day life.

While mental models are unique to each individual, you’ll be able to uncover common patterns in your customers. Identifying these at the start of your project will increase your chances of designing an easy to use and successful product.

The best way to do this is through common design research methods such as task analysis, observation and interviews.

What is a conceptual model?

A conceptual model is created by the designer as a high-level plan for how the product will work and fit together. It’s made up of different elements that shape the organisation of the system, and is ultimately represented in the interface that the customer interacts with.

Elements that contribute to the conceptual model of your product include:

• Information architecture — How are the different areas being grouped and structured? Where are your customers expecting to find the answers to their mental model within your product? Does that match their expectations?
• Terminology — Is the user familiar with the words being used? Are they broad terms that infer what you can do in each part of the product? How closely do they match the terms the customers use every day?
• Content strategy — What are the guiding concepts or rules for the types of content appearing on each page?
• Channel strategy — Are you creating consistent, continuous, or complementary experiences?
• Interaction models — Are you using well known patterns? Introducing something new? How are people interacting with the system?

You’re unlikely to be able to get these elements perfect the first time. You must validate and iterate on the elements of your conceptual model through testing directly with customers. The best way to do this is through card sorting, tree testing, concept testing, and usability testing.

If you ignore your customers’ mental models…

…users will feel frustrated when using your product. They’ll struggle to learn and remember how the system works. Ultimately leading to product abandonment.

It’s as if you’ve put the oven in the bathroom, and the shower in the kitchen — UX researcher, Dylan Mathiesen

Consider these worst-case scenarios:

• You’ve built an app without considering the customer’s mental model of your product — Most often this results in the information architecture reflecting a set of features, with no clear connection to each other. These features may each solve a valuable problem, but the user will need to work harder to complete the tasks they want to do. This is because the different parts of the system aren’t grouped in a way that supports the users expectations of what they need to complete a task.
• A new driverless car has been released and it doesn’t have a steering wheel — This car might be an amazing piece of technology that works better than all cars ever created, but it will be unlikely that the user will adopt it. The conceptual model is too far removed from the user’s current mental model for using a car.

How to build a strong conceptual model…

…consider these three approaches to increase your chances of success

1. Anchor your conceptual model in what your customers do today.

• Research and understand customer expectations first — Before showing interfaces, ask the user to talk you through the steps they take to complete the task. Observe what they do right now to achieve these goals, without your product. Base key journeys in your product on patterns derived from what your customers already do.
• Use terminology they are familiar with — Understand your user’s language. Don’t make up new wording that doesn’t mean anything to them. This helps your product be instantly recognisable.
• Leverage the interface patterns that they already use — Designing a chat experience? How is that usually structured? What products does this customer use every day? What sorts of interfaces are appropriate to the context your product appears in?
• Test early, and iterate — Keep testing your proposed conceptual model with your users. Test with realistic tasks that matter to them. It is important to validate and iterate early even before you have designs. Use techniques such as closed card sorting and tree testing.
• Re-evaluate the conceptual model at every step in the process— As you interact with other moving parts (technical constraints, business goals, roadmaps) your designs will evolve. Consider the impact of this evolution on the perception of your conceptual model. Reshape it as needed.

2. Introduce your customers to a new conceptual model.

How might you help the user model that idea mentally?

• Help your users relate to new concepts by basing them on familiar ones — When smart phones were first released, we saw the trend of skeuomorphic interfaces. Skeuomorphism mimics a real object’s interaction and appearance. Think, early UI of books, music players or notepads. If the user recognises the same model in a new place, it forms a bridge between your new idea and their world. You could also look to other interactions, ideas, objects or industry standards.
• Leverage a familiar model from the natural world — For example, Google’s Material Design system takes cues from the physical world and its textures. Elements of light, shadow and physical material (for the majority) are universally experienced.
• Use ‘perceived affordances’ — Explore different techniques to visually suggest the model’s function and how it should be used. We can subconsciously recognise the function of a mug just by looking at it. The shape suggests it could hold something, and its size reflects that it can be held in one hand.
• Show them how the product could be used through effective on boarding and marketing — Re-align their mental model through education. Use product videos to introduce the new conceptual model.

3. Introduce a completely foreign conceptual model by taking the user on a journey

“Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt…respect the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.”— Robert Greene

• Have an end goal in mind, but break this down into considered stages to gradually influence the customers’ mental model — Imagine we have a new model of driverless car no longer needing a steering wheel. In 2019, completely removing the steering wheel will be too sudden of a change. Instead, we should be able to hide the steering wheel away when it’s not needed, yet its still there. Once people are more accepting of this concept, the steering wheel can be removed completely.
• Ideas are often ahead of their time. Sometimes you need a pioneer to prime the user’s mental model to new conceptual models coming in the future — In 2012 Google Glass was a revolutionary piece of technology, but it failed to gain traction. Users couldn’t figure out how to fit it into their lives. Google probably launched it knowing it wouldn’t be a consumer success. However, it primed our thoughts for the possibilities of the future. Those who finish a revolution are rarely those who start it.

Hey thanks for reading! Do you have any other examples or situations to share?…I’d love to know your thoughts in the responses below.

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