book

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

Name: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition
Author: Susan M. Weinschenk
ISBN: 9780136746959

by Susan M. Weinschenk

June 2020

Beginner

256 pages

5h 38m

English

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Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Contents
The Psychology of Design
How People See
1. What you See isn’t what your Brain Gets
The brain creates shortcuts
2. Peripheral Vision is used more than Central Vision to get the Gist of what you See

3. People Identify Objects by Recognizing Patterns
The Geon Theory of Object Recognition
4. There’s a Special Part of the Brain Just for Recognizing Faces
5. There’s a Special Part of the Brain for Processing Simple Visual Features
Well, Maybe not Just One at a Time
6. People Scan Screens Based on Past Experience and Expectations
People have a Mental Model of what they want to See and where they want to See itIf there is a Problem, People Narrow their View
7. People See Cues that Tell them what to do with an Object
Perceived Affordances on ScreensHyperlinks are Losing their Affordance Cues Too
8. People can Miss Changes in their Visual Fields
9. People Believe that Things that are close Together Belong Together
10. Red and Blue Together are Hard on the Eyes
11. Nine Percent of Men and One‑Half Percent of Women are Color-Blind
12. Colors Mean Different Things to Different Cultures
How People Read
13. It’s a Myth that Words in All Caps are Inherently Hard to Read
Reading isn’t as Fluid as it SeemsSo is it Harder to Read Text that is in All Caps?
14. Reading and Comprehending are Two Different Things
Readability FormulasCan you Read this Paragraph?Titles and Headlines are CriticalWhat you Remember of what you Read Depends on your Point of View
15. Pattern Recognition Helps People Identify Letters in Different Fonts
If a Font is Hard to Read, People Think the Task is Hard to do
16. Font Size Matters
17. Reading a Screen is Harder than Reading Paper
18. People Read Faster with a Longer Line Length, but they Prefer a Shorter Line Length
How People Remember
19. Short-Term Memory is Limited
Working Memory and Focused AttentionWorking Memory vs. Sensory Input
20. People Remember Only Four Items at Once
Why it’s an Urban LegendUsing Chunks to Turn Four into MoreThe Four-Item Rule Applies to Memory Retrieval Too
21. People have to use Information to Make it Stick
Repetition Physically Changes the BrainThe Power of a SchemaExperts Store Information as Schemata
22. It’s Easier to Recognize Information than Recall it
Recognition is Easier than RecallInclusion Errors
23. Memory Takes a Lot of Mental Resources
Memory is Easily Disrupted
24. People Reconstruct Memories Each Time they Remember Them
Memories ChangeWhy Eyewitness Testimonies are UnreliableThe Impact of Reconstructed Memories on User Research
25. It’s a Good Thing that People Forget
A Formula to Show you how much you will ForgetDesign with Forgetting in Mind
26. The Most Vivid Memories are Wrong
Flashbulb Memories are VividVivid but Full of Errors
How People Think
27. People Process Information Better in Bite-Sized Chunks
Applying the Concept of Progressive DisclosureCounting Clicks isn’t what CountsKnow who Needs what when
28. Some Types of Mental Processing are More Challenging than Others
All Loads are not EqualMaking Trade-OffsUse Fitts’s Law to Determine Motor LoadsSometimes you want to Increase Loads
29. Minds Wander 30 Percent of the Time
Mind Wandering is a Very Common PhenomenonWhy a Wandering Mind can be a Good ThingWhy a Wandering Mind can be a Bad Thing
30. The more Uncertain People are, The More they Defend their Ideas
Alter Our Beliefs or Deny the Information?Ask for Small Commitments
31. People Create Mental Models
What Exactly is a Mental Model?
32. People Interact with Conceptual Models
What if it’s Brand New and I Purposely want a Mismatch?
33. People Process Information best in Story form
Tried-and-True Story FormatsClassic StoriesStories Imply CausationStories are Important in All Communications
34. People Learn best from Examples
35. People are Driven to Create Categories
People Love to CategorizeIf you don’t Provide Categories, People will Create their OwnWho Organizes it Doesn’t Matter as Much as How well it’s Organized
36. Time is Relative
If People Feel Pressed for Time, they won’t Stop to Help SomeoneExpectations Change Over Time
37. People Screen out Information that Doesn’t Fit their Beliefs
38. People can be in a Flow State
39. Culture Affects how People Think
East = Relationships; West = IndividualisticCultural Differences Show up in Brain Scans
How People Focus Their Attention
40. Attention is Selective
Unconscious Selective Attention
41. People Habituate to Information
42. Well-Practiced Skills don’t Require Conscious Attention
Too Many Automatic Steps can Lead to Errors
43. Expectations of Frequency Affect Attention
A Mental Model about Frequency
44. Sustained Attention Lasts about 10 Minutes
45. People Pay Attention Only to Salient Cues
46. People are Worse at Multitasking than they Think
One ExceptionDo age and Multitasking Experience Make a Difference?Some People Enjoy Multitasking
47. Danger, Food, Sex, Movement, Faces, and Stories get the Most Attention
Why People can’t Resist Paying Attention to Food, Sex, and Danger
48. Loud Noises Startle and get Attention
People Habituate to Auditory Stimuli
49. For People to Pay Attention to Something, They Must First Perceive it
Signal Detection TheoryHow to Apply Signal Detection Theory
What Motivates People
50. People are more Motivated as they get Closer to a Goal
51. Variable Rewards are Powerful
What the Casinos KnowOperant Theory and Design
52. Dopamine Stimulates the Seeking of Information
Pleasure Chemical or Motivation Chemical?
53. Unpredictability Keeps People Searching
The Pavlovian ReflexSmall Amounts are Even more AddictiveThe Dopamine Loop
54. People are more Motivated by Intrinsic Rewards than by Extrinsic Rewards
From Algorithmic Work to Heuristic Work
55. People are Motivated by Progress, Mastery, and Control
Small Signs of Progress can have a Big Effect
56. People are Motivated by Social Norms
57. People are Inherently Lazy
Is Lazy Another Word for Efficient?Satisfy Plus Suffice Equals SatisficeDesign Websites for Scanning, not Reading
58. People Will Look for Shortcuts Only if the Shortcuts are Easy
Provide Defaults
59. People Assume it’s you, not the Situation
But for You, it’s SituationalPeople can’t Stop it Even when they know they’re Doing it
60. Forming or Changing a Habit is Easier than you Think
61. People are more Motivated to Compete when there are Fewer Competitors
Competing Against 10 vs. Competing Against 100Building in Competition
62. People are Motivated by Autonomy
People are Social Animals
63. The “Strong Tie” Group Size Limit is 150 People
Dunbar’s NumberThe Social Group Size Limit for HumansDoes that Number Seem Low to you?Is it The Weak Ties that are Important?Purposely Designing for Strong or Weak
64. People are Hard Wired for Imitation and Empathy
Mirror Neurons Firing
65. Doing Things Together Bonds People Together
Bonding in Online Communities
66. People Expect Online Interactions to Follow Social Rules
Online Interactions have the Same Rules
67. People Lie to Differing Degrees Depending on the Medium
Ninety-Two Percent of Graduate Students LiedManagers Lie TooPeople Lie most on the TelephoneDo People Lie in Text Messages?
68. Speakers’ Brains and Listeners’ Brains Sync up During Communication
Syncing Plus Anticipation Equals Understanding
69. The Brain Responds Uniquely to People you know Personally
70. Laughter Bonds People Together
Tickle Laughter vs. Joy LaughterLaughter and Technology
71. People Can Tell when a Smile is Real or Fake more Accurately with Video
Real or Fake?Questioning the 80 Percent Figure
How People Feel
72. Some Emotions May be Universal
The Controversy: Are Facial Expressions Universal?Cultural Differences in High Emotional Arousal vs. Low Emotional Arousal
73. Positive Feelings About a Group can Lead to Groupthink
74. Stories and Anecdotes Persuade more than Data Alone
75. If People Can’t Feel, then they Can’t Decide
No Emotions = No Decisions
76. People are Programmed to Enjoy Surprises
Craving the Unexpected
77. People are Happier when They’re Busy
People Need an Excuse
78. Pastoral Scenes make People Happy
Pastoral Scenes Provide “Attention Restoration”
79. People use “Look and Feel” as their First Indicator of Trust
80. Listening to Music Releases Dopamine in the Brain
Pleasure vs. Anticipated Pleasure
81. The more Difficult Something is to Achieve, the more People Like it
Cognitive Dissonance TheoryScarcity and Exclusivity
82. People Overestimate Reactions to Future Events
People are Poor PredictorsA Built-In Regulator
83. People Feel more Positive Before and after an Event than During it
84. People want what is Familiar when they’re Sad or Scared
People want what’s FamiliarThe Desire for the Familiar is Related to the Fear of Loss
People Make Mistakes
85. People will Always Make Mistakes; There is no Fail-Safe Product
Assume that Something will go WrongThe Best Error Message is no Error Message
86. People make Errors when they are Under Stress
Using a Website Under StressThe Yerkes-Dodson LawTasks are more Stressful than you May Think
87. Not All Mistakes are Bad
88. People make Predictable Types of Errors
Performance ErrorsMotor-Control Errors
89. People use Different Error Strategies
Systematic ExplorationsTrial and Error ExplorationsRigid Explorations
How People Decide
90. People make most Decisions Unconsciously
Unconscious doesn’t Mean Irrational or Bad
91. The Unconscious knows First
The Unconscious Mind Picks up the Danger First
92. People want more Choices and Information than they can Process
Too Many Choices Paralyzes the Thought ProcessWhy People can’t Stop
93. People Think Choice Equals Control
94. People May Care about Time more than they Care about Money
Spending Time vs. Spending MoneyPeople want to Connect
95. Mood Influences the Decision-Making Process
96. You can Engineer Better Group Decisions
The Danger of GroupthinkBut Two People can be Better than One
97. People make Habit-Based Decisions or Value-Based Decisions, but not Both at the Same Time
Habit-Based Decisions vs. Value-Based DecisionsOnly One or The Other
98. When People are Uncertain, they Let others Decide what to do
Uncertainty Tips the ScalePeople Take Action Only if others Take ActionTestimonials and Ratings are Powerful
99. People Think Others are more Easily Influenced than they are Themselves
The Third-Person EffectWhy do People Deceive Themselves this Way?
100. People Value a Product more Highly when it’s Physically in Front of them
The Real Deal CountsToys, Trinkets, and PlexiglasWhat about Samples?Is it Olfactory?A Pavlovian Response?
References
Index
Credits

Content preview from 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

98 When People are Uncertain, they Let others Decide what to do

Imagine you’re browsing a website to decide what boots to buy. You see a pair that looks good, but you’ve never heard of the brand before. Will you buy the boots or not? If you’re unsure, then chances are you’ll scroll down the page and look for reviews and ratings left by others. And chances are the reviews will influence your decision, even though the people writing the reviews are total strangers.

Uncertainty Tips the Scale

In my book Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? I talk about the tendency to look to others to decide what to do. It’s called social validation.

Bibb Latane and John Darley (1970) conducted research in which they set up ambiguous situations to see if ...

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100 Things: Every Designer Needs to Know About People

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100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

by Susan M. Weinschenk