In order to better understand the topic of neuromarketing vs. UX, take a look at our definitions below.

What are neuromarketing and UX?

Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is a recent discipline in marketing that uses neuroscience to make sense of the emotional and cognitive reactions that people subconsciously experience when making decisions.
By measuring the corporal and cerebral reactions of an individual while they are performing a task online, we can obtain a lot of information that is relevant to marketing objectives.

The concept was developed in 1990 by psychologists at Harvard University. It is believed that more than more than 95% of human beings’ decisions and reactions are unconsciously made.

According to Gerald Zaltman in his 2003 book, How Customers Think, “Approximately 95% of thoughts, emotions, and ‘learnings’ occur unconsciously, in the mind, or rather, without our conscious awareness.”

For businesses, the high percentage of client decision-making makes this field–as well as neuromarketing–an indispensable tool for improving a brand and reaching more users.
Because it’s a relatively recent field, however, there are still a few challenges to overcome before neuroscience is a secure part of the market. Some of the most prominent setbacks are the high costs, the lack of agreement between researchers, lack of communication between scientists and businessmen, and the absence of established standards within the discipline.

User Experience

User Experience is a marketing field that studies and optimizes the interaction between users and a service, product, or device, as well as the consequential emotional relationship that each service, product, or device produces. UX ultimately seeks to help satisfy users’ concrete needs.

The term UX was used for the first time by Dr. Donald Norman, a researcher in cognitive science in the mid-90s.
“Design that deals with decision-making should be based on what the user wants and needs,” said Dr. Donald Norman.

We could talk about UX during a long time, and we have been deepening in this concept through several articles, so if you want to know more about UX, here we address you more information about it.

What techniques are used?

Neuromarketing:

• Functional Resonance Magnetic Imaging (fMRI) – fMRI is an expensive technique that studies images of the brain activity of certain cerebral zones while someone is carrying out a task. These images measure the amount of oxygen in the blood of these concrete areas, as well as the increase of oxygen that occurs as neural activity increases.
• Encephalography (EEG) – EEG measures the capabilities of thousands of neurons in the scalp as they are carrying out their various activities. This is not an invasive technique, so it’s less expensive, but as a result, the spatial resolution is limited and sometimes cannot offer reliable data about internal zones of the brain.
• Magnetic Encephalography (MEG) – MEG measures the magnetic fields that align with coordinated neural activity in the brain. Both EEG and MEG are conceptually similar, although with MEG, it’s possible to have a higher quality signal and a higher temporal resolution. As a consequence, MEG is more expensive.
• Temography (PET) – PET measures changes in the brain’s metabolism, but is considered an invasive technique that is not used frequently in non-clinical research.

There are other techniques that are not considered “neuroscience” but are used in neuromarketing to measure physical responses of people, such as:

• Eye Tracking – Ocular movements are measured with high-velocity cameras, including the dilation of pupils and the flicker of one’s eyelids. Eye tracking follows the visual “route” and can help create maps of the points or locations on which the eyes rest for the longest amount of time.
• Galvanic Skin Response – This measures the activation or stimulation of skin through the increase of the skin’s conductivity. This must be complemented with other techniques in order to classify the type of stimulus.
• Cardiac Rhythm – Cardiac Rhythm studies the velocity of a heartbeat due to a stimulus. The acceleration of the heartbeat is connected to a negative emotional response while deceleration means an increase in attention.
• Electromyography (EMG) – EMG measures the electrical activity generated in facial muscles during an emotional state.

UX

• Heuristic Test – This is used to improve usability in web design, measuring various cases and analyzing a series heuristic principles. Each case is “scored” depending on the impact that these principles have on the user.
• Perception Test – This test consists of showing a website to a participant for 2-5 seconds and then asking a series of questions about what they have seen. We can then obtain results about the “visual impact” that the participant has experienced.
• Web Analysis – This method gathers information on every action that a user makes while navigating a website and then analyzes said information to optimize the various parts of the webpage. This information is acquired through a Javascript code that can be found online.
• Task Interviews – These involve interviewing a user while they are carrying out specific tasks.
• Click Analysis, Heat Maps, and Eye-Tracking – Each of these tests entail analyzing the locations on a website that get the most “clicks,” as well as those with which users interact the most and those that receive the most attention.
• A/B Test and Multi-variables – Different users are shown two different web designs to analyze which design obtains the highest conversion rate.
• User Test – This is used to analyze the way a user navigates when given definitive tasks. The test can be done in person or remotely.

What is the future?

Neuromarketing and the User Experience are complementary disciplines.

By using both of them, it’s easier to obtain helpful information regarding users’ actions and choices, both conscious and subconscious.

Improving and strengthening these neuromarketing techniques will help facilitate improved UX and better product-user relations for businesses. There is still a lot to be done in this type of research, but together, we can create a more successful future for neuromarketing and UX.