When users hide a title, you could add a short line of reassuring context confirming they can still search for it later, easing their context craving.

UI shows a dark modal with options: "Watch Trailer" and "Hide this movie" highlighted by orange arrow to a dark box stating "Hiding this movie, but you can still search for it. Undo" next to "Room on the Broom" movie image.

Example from

Amazon

You could satisfy context craving around technical settings by showing the bandwidth each video quality option needs, so users can choose confidently.

Black background settings menu with white text shows Video Quality options: Good (0.38 GB/hr), Better (1.40 GB/hr), Best (6.84 GB/hr) is selected with checkmark.

Example from

Amazon

You could experiment with expanding option rows as users browse, revealing extra context (e.g., faster, seating for 6) while they're actively comparing.

Example from

Bolt

You could meet context craving around results by framing a score relative to other players, so a raw number becomes a clear sense of how well they did.

Dark-mode UI with orange bar showing "Average solving time 5.84 seconds" beating 96% users; green performance insights show score 802 beating 3%, rank Beginner to Novice.

Example from

Peak

Possible impacts

Giving users the context they crave about consequences, e.g., whether an action can be undone, could reduce anxiety and make them more willing to act.

As seen in:

Amazon Context about hiding

Anchoring unfamiliar choices to familiar references may help users understand complex options, favouring clarity over speed where context craving is high.

As seen in:

Nike Contextualising the effort

Amazon Contextualising quality

When users understand what each option means and why it matters, their context craving is satisfied, which could lead to more accurate, considered inputs.

As seen in:

Nike Contextualising the effort

Bolt Showing (and hiding) context

Written by Peter Ramsey

Consultant to 100+ companies

Published: 17/08/2023