Peak-end Rule

01 / UNDERSTAND

The idea

People’s retrospective impressions can be influenced by particularly intense moments and by how an experience ends. This does not mean the rest of the journey is irrelevant. Improve the whole task while paying attention to memorable breakdowns and closure.

Retrospective judgment can be influenced by an experience’s strongest positive or negative moments and its ending. A frustrating error can be a peak just as much as a celebration. Improve the overall journey and its closure. Do not assume a cheerful last screen erases difficulty, or that remembered satisfaction proves successful task completion.

02 / RECOGNISE

See it in real products.

Examples of how the principle can appear in an interface.

UberEXAMPLE 01

Acknowledge a better-than-expected ending

Uber’s delivery notification highlights an arrival ahead of the estimate. The closing message makes a positive outcome explicit at a memorable point in the experience.

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FiverrEXAMPLE 02

End the task with context for evaluating it

Fiverr reminds the customer of the order’s duration and cost when requesting a final rating. The summary makes the completed exchange more concrete at its closing stage.

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04 / APPLY

Put it into practice.

1. 01

   Identify intense positive and negative moments

2. 02

   Provide clear closure

3. 03

   Make error recovery understandable

CONNECT THE IDEAS

Related principles

Recency Bias

Recent events can dominate judgment.

Serial Position Effect

Position can influence what people remember.

User Delight

Small thoughtful details can make useful work feel better.