Is IKEA selling the delight of effortless control ?

Known as one of the most consumer centric brands with the best user experience to offer over an immersive omnichannel experience — IKEA has mastered the art of making consumers feel in conrol of their choices.

An ikea design station allowing the customers to design their kitchen makes the customer do the work to choose what’s best for them. Why would a customer pay a premium to make the effort & spend the time on designing his/her own kitchen instead paying an expert interior designer to make this choice? The answer is quite obvious and it is our cognitive need and biological design to be in control. And a customised experience with the allowance to excercise one’s creative freedom serves this need even at the cost of taking on some extra cognitive load.

However, this load is checked by not giving too many choices to the consumer, or not making the consumer do the less interesting & functional tasks. The feeling of power & control is maximum at taking the easier end of the funnel decisions and not the critical design or functional decisions.

An IKEA store layout is a carefully designed one way open space. Allowing the customers to touch, feel and experience all products offers conrol while guiding their one way path keeps a check on their cognitive load. Letting the customers assemble pieces gives control while placing the complementary pieces together checks their cognitive load.

Cognitive psychology drives all types of user experience designs. Reducing cognitive load while maintaining the perception of control is a necessary balance striked by winning brands like IKEA. Can the “IKEA effect” be translated to digital product design too?