The Peak End Rule: Memoirs of a User Experience

Imagine two patients undergoing a painful medical procedure. Patient A experiences 20 minutes of intense pain then it ends. Patient B experiences the same 20 minutes of intense pain followed by 5 minutes of mild pain then it ends. Logically Patient B suffered more. They had more total minutes of pain. Yet when asked later Patient B rated the experience as less painful than Patient A.

Why? Because Patient B had a better ending. The mild pain softened the memory of the intense pain. This is the Peak End Rule. Our memory does not take an average of an experience. It takes a snapshot of the most intense moment (the Peak) and the final moment (the End). It discards almost everything else. A mediocre meal is redeemed by a complimentary dessert. A great vacation is ruined by a lost bag on the flight home.

Why does our memory edit the tape?

The brain saves space by compressing experiences into highlights focused on intensity and conclusion.

We are not recording machines. We are highlight reel editors. Storing every second of a sensory experience is metabolically expensive and unnecessary. To learn for the future we only need to know how bad it got (Peak) and if we survived (End). This heuristic serves as a shortcut for future decision making. This explains why we return to a restaurant that had slow service but amazing food (Peak) and a waived bill (End).

Where should you invest your customer experience budget?

You should ignore the average moments and spend heavily on creating one high peak and a perfect ending.

Most companies try to make their customer experience generally good all the time. This is wasted effort. Customers ignore the averages. A hotel might have average hallways. But if the receptionist hands you a warm chocolate chip cookie when you check in (like DoubleTree hotels) that is a positive Peak. You forgive the slow elevator. You remember the cookie.

In software create a Delight moment. The confetti animation happens when you complete a task. It costs nothing but creates the memory anchor. Conversely ensure the offboarding is perfect. If you make a user allow you to cancel with one click they leave with a positive End memory. If you make them call a number they hate you forever. A graceful exit leaves the door open for a return.

How do you save a project that dragged on too long?

You must manufacture a ceremonial End event to overwrite the memory of the slow middle.

Agency owners often suffer from the slow fade. The project starts with excitement but drags on with scope creep. Even if the work was good the client remembers the slow annoying end. You must engineer a definitive celebratory End. A wrap up call. A final success document. A gift basket. You need to sound the buzzer. Force the client's brain to encode the memory as a success rather than a slow drift.

Don't fix the potholes. Build the rollercoaster. You cannot make every moment perfect. Accept the neutral moments. But ensure the Peak is high and the End is sweet. People don't remember the commute to the theme park. They remember the drop on the coaster and the photo at the gate.

Read More Biases

• Recency Effect
• Duration Neglect
• Halo Effect