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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DESIGN
PEOPLE
1 WHAT YOU SEE ISN’T WHAT YOUR BRAIN GETS
For example, in Figure 1.4, the line on the left appears longer than the line on the right, but in reality they are the same length. For example, in Figure 1.4, the line on the left appears longer than the line on the right, but in reality they are the same length.
2 PERIPHERAL VISION IS USED MORE THAN CENTRAL VISION TO GET THE
5 2 PERIPHERAL VISION IS USED MORE THAN CENTRAL VISION TO GET THE SITUATION OF WHAT YOU SEE. Although the middle of the screen is important for central vision, don't ignore what's in viewers' peripheral vision.
3 PEOPLE IDENTIFY OBJECTS BY RECOGNIZING PATTERNS
THE GEON THEORY OF OBJECT RECOGNITION
If you want people to recognize an object (such as an icon), use a simple geometric drawing of the object. This will make it easier to identify the underlying geons and thus make it easier and faster to identify the object.
4 THERE’S A SPECIAL PART OF THE
BRAIN JUST FOR RECOGNIZING FACES
The eyes have it: people decide who and what is alive by looking at the eyes. She also found that people primarily use their eyes to decide whether a photo shows someone who is human and alive.
5 PEOPLE IMAGINE OBJECTS TILTED AND AT A SLIGHT ANGLE ABOVE
Very few people would draw a coffee mug like in Figure 5.3, which is what you would see if you looked at a coffee mug from above. The canonical perspective still won, even though we mostly see cats or very small dogs from high above, not just slightly above (unless you crawl around on the ground a lot).
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 IT.
PEOPLE HAVE A MENTAL MODEL OF WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE AND WHERE THEY WANT TO SEE IT
IF THERE IS A PROBLEM, PEOPLE NARROW THEIR VIEW
7 PEOPLE SEE CUES THAT TELL THEM WHAT TO DO WITH AN OBJECT
PERCEIVED AFFORDANCES ON COMPUTER SCREENS
In Figure 7.4, shadows of different colors along the edges make the button appear pressed. Many buttons on websites have some of these visual cues, such as the button in Figure 7.5, but lately websites are losing these cues. .
HYPERLINKS ARE LOSING THEIR AFFORDANCE CUES
Now it will appear as if it is not entered, and the shadows will give signals to press the button. By giving people hints about what they can do with a certain object, you make it more likely that they will take that action.
8 PEOPLE CAN MISS CHANGES IN THEIR VISUAL FIELDS
Eye-tracking data is therefore easy to distort, depending on what instructions you give them before and during the eye-tracking study. If you want to be sure that people notice changes in their visual fields, add additional visual cues (such as blinking) or auditory cues (such as a beep).
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
25 11 NINE PERCENT OF MEN AND HALF PERCENT OF WOMEN ARE COLOR BLIND FIGURE 11.4 Full Color Vision (WWW.CDC.GOV). For whatever reason, some color blind people can see camouflage better than those with full color vision.
12 THE MEANINGS OF COLORS VARY BY CULTURE
But for a color to affect mood, the person must sit in a room surrounded by that color. Pick a few major cultures or countries that you want to reach with your design and check them on the cultural color chart from InformationIsBeautiful.net to make sure you avoid unintentional color associations for that culture.
With adult literacy rates now over 80 percent worldwide, reading is a primary form of communication for most people. But how do
READ
13 IT’S A MYTH THAT CAPITAL LETTERS ARE INHERENTLY HARD TO READ
READING ISN’T AS FLUID AS IT SEEMS
In 1996, Kenneth Goodman found that we use peripheral vision to see what comes next when we read. Although we read ahead about 15 letters at a time, we only get the meaning for part of that span.
SO, IS ALL CAPITALS HARDER TO READ THEN?
We read forward about 15 letters at a time, looking at the characters on the right (assuming we read from left to right), although every now and then a saccade jumps us back and we read a group of letters again. People interpret all caps as shouting and are not used to reading them, so use all caps sparingly.
14 READING AND COMPREHENDING ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS
CAN YOU READ THIS PARAGRAPH?
TITLES AND HEADLINES ARE CRITICAL
Words are processed in different parts of the brain depending on what you do with them. Seeing or reading words, listening, speaking, generating verbs—all these word activities involve different parts of the brain, as shown in Figure 14.3.
WHAT YOU REMEMBER OF WHAT YOU READ DEPENDS ON YOUR POINT OF VIEW
15 PATTERN RECOGNITION HELPS PEOPLE IDENTIFY LETTERS IN
IF A FONT IS HARD TO READ, THE MEANING OF THE TEXT WILL BE LOST
Script MT Italic), people estimated that it would take almost twice as long (15 minutes) to do the exercise, and they rated the exercise as difficult to perform (Figure 15.3). If people have difficulty reading the font, they will transfer that sense of difficulty to the meaning of the text itself and conclude that the subject of the text is difficult to perform or understand.
A shorter line length creates more of these breaks over the total length of the piece you are reading. Line length poses a dilemma: do you give people the short line length and multiple columns they prefer, or do you go against their own preference and intuition, knowing that they will read faster if you give them a longer line length and a single column? used.
HOW PEOPLE
REMEMBER
19 SHORT-TERM MEMORY IS LIMITED
WORKING MEMORY AND FOCUSED ATTENTION
WORKING MEMORY VS. SENSORY INPUT
20 PEOPLE REMEMBER ONLY FOUR ITEMS AT ONCE
WHY IT’S AN URBAN LEGEND
USING CHUNKS TO TURN FOUR INTO MORE
And to make it even easier, everyone in town had the same exchange (the 569 part of the previous phone number). If you called someone in your town with the same exchange, all you had to remember was the last four numbers.
THE FOUR-ITEM RULE APPLIES TO MEMORY RETRIEVAL, TOO
If you can limit the information you give people to four items, that would actually be a good idea, but you don't have to be so drastic. Be aware that people tend to use external aids (notes, lists, calendars, appointment books) so they don't have to rely on memory.
21 PEOPLE HAVE TO USE INFORMATION TO MAKE IT STICK
REPETITION PHYSICALLY CHANGES THE BRAIN
THE POWER OF A SCHEMA
EXPERTS STORE INFORMATION AS SCHEMATA
22 IT’S EASIER TO RECOGNIZE INFORMATION THAN RECALL IT
RECOGNITION IS EASIER THAN RECALL
INCLUSION ERRORS
23 MEMORY TAKES A LOT OF MENTAL RESOURCES
MEMORY IS EASILY DISRUPTED
One day he accidentally left the rats connected to the equipment he used to record their brain activity. To his surprise, he found that their brain activity was almost the same whether they were sleeping or running through mazes.
24 PEOPLE RECONSTRUCT MEMORIES EACH TIME THEY REMEMBER THEM
MEMORIES CHANGE
WHY EYEWITNESS TESTIMONIES ARE UNRELIABLE
When witnesses close their eyes while trying to remember what they saw, their memories are clearer and more accurate (Perfect, 2008). Have you seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? It's a film about a company that erases certain memories.
25 IT’S A GOOD THING THAT PEOPLE FORGET
A FORMULA TO SHOW YOU HOW MUCH YOU WILL FORGET
Provide them with this in your design, or provide a way for them to easily find it.
FLASHBULB MEMORIES ARE VIVID
VIVID BUT FULL OF ERRORS
THINK
APPLYING THE CONCEPT OF PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE
63 27 PEOPLE PROCESS INFORMATION BETTER IN BITCH-SIZE CHOCKS FIGURE 27.2 The second step provides some more detail.
COUNTING CLICKS ISN’T WHAT COUNTS
In fact, they won't even notice they're clicking if they get the right amount of information with each click to keep them on track.
KNOW WHO NEEDS WHAT WHEN
CHALLENGING THAN OTHERS
ALL LOADS ARE NOT EQUAL
MAKING TRADE-OFFS
USE FITT’S LAW TO DETERMINE MOTOR LOADS
SOMETIMES YOU WANT TO INCREASE LOADS
MIND WANDERING IS A VERY COMMON PHENOMENON
WHY A WANDERING MIND CAN BE A GOOD THING
It's not quite multitasking (which doesn't exist – see the 'How People Focus Their Attention' section for more), but mind wandering can help you shift focus from one idea to another, quickly. back again.
WHY A WANDERING MIND CAN BE A BAD THING
ALTER OUR BELIEFS OR DENY THE INFORMATION?
The more these regions were activated, the more the participant would claim that he really thought the fMRI was pleasant. David Gal and Derek Rucker (2010) recently conducted research where they used framing techniques to make people feel insecure. For example, they told one group to remember a time when they were full of certainty, and the other group to remember a time when they were full of doubt.) Then they asked the participants whether they were meat eaters, vegetarians, vegans , or otherwise, how important it was to them, and how confident they were in their opinions.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A MENTAL MODEL?
WHAT IS A MENTAL MODEL IN DESIGN?
WHAT IF IT’S BRAND NEW AND I PURPOSELY WANT A MISMATCH?
In my view, the UCD process is one-sided in that it is primarily about understanding what the users' mental models are (with task analysis, observations, interviews, and so on); or designing a conceptual model to match the users' mental model (interface design, iterations, validation testing, and so on). In my opinion, the UCD process is one-sided in that it is primarily about understanding what the users' mental models are (using task analysis, observations, interviews, etc.); or to design a conceptual model to match the users'. mental model (interface design, iterations, validation testing, and so on).
TRIED-AND-TRUE STORY FORMATS
In the middle part of a story there are typically obstacles and conflicts that the main character must overcome. In my story above, I thought about what to do (tell a story to the class), what I did, and what succeeded.
CLASSIC STORIES
At the end of the story, the conflict reaches a climax and is then resolved.
STORIES IMPLY CAUSATION
STORIES ARE IMPORTANT IN ALL COMMUNICATIONS
Just preview this version to make sure it looks the way you like it and click "next" to move on to the last step of the Campaign Builder. We then recommend sending tests to several email addresses to see how the campaign looks in your recipient's inboxes.
PEOPLE LOVE TO CATEGORIZE
IF YOU DON’T PROVIDE CATEGORIES, PEOPLE WILL CREATE THEIR OWN
WHO ORGANIZES DOESN’T MATTER AS MUCH AS HOW WELL IT’S ORGANIZED
IF PEOPLE FEEL PRESSED FOR TIME, THEY WON’T STOP TO HELP SOMEONE
The type of conversation the participants had prepared for (jobs vs. the parable of the Good Samaritan) did not make a significant difference in whether they stopped to help, but how much they rushed.
EXPECTATIONS CHANGE OVER TIME
DELIBERATE AND COGNITIVE CREATIVITY
DELIBERATE AND EMOTIONAL CREATIVITY
I called my landlord and got out of the lease on the flea infested, overpriced apartment and started making decisions that would make my life easier. But there is another part of your brain that also deals with emotions.
SPONTANEOUS AND COGNITIVE CREATIVITY
But instead of focusing on a particular area of knowledge or expertise, people who engage in deliberate, emotional creativity have a-ha moments that deal with feelings and emotions. This part of the brain works with more complex feelings related to how you interact with others and your place in the world.
SPONTANEOUS AND EMOTIONAL CREATIVITY
But if people slept in between, then almost 60 percent of the participants found a shortcut. But if people slept in between, then almost 60 percent of the participants found a shortcut.
For example, people with schizophrenia have difficulty inducing or remaining in a state of flow, possibly because they have difficulty with some of the other elements listed above, such as focused attention, control, or a sense that the self does not feel threatened. I haven't found specific research on the brain correlates of flow state, but given that it combines temporal changes, pleasurable sensations, and focused attention, I'm guessing it involves both the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for directed attention, and the basal ganglia, which are involved in producing dopamine.
EAST = RELATIONSHIPS; WEST = INDIVIDUALISTIC
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES SHOW UP IN BRAIN SCANS
What makes us sit up and take notice? How do you grab and hold someone’s attention? How do we choose what to notice and what
HOW PEOPLE FOCUS THEIR
ATTENTION
On the other hand, if someone is concentrating on a specific task, such as completing the information shown in Figure 40.2, they are likely to filter out distracting factors.
UNCONSCIOUS SELECTIVE ATTENTION
TOO MANY AUTOMATIC STEPS CAN LEAD TO ERRORS
If you ask people to perform a sequence repeatedly, make it easy to do, but understand that the trade-off is that people may make mistakes because they are no longer paying attention. Make it easy for people to undo not just their last action, but an entire sequence.
A MENTAL MODEL ABOUT FREQUENCY
There is an indicator on my screen that constantly shows that the battery power is disappearing, but when I'm at home I think I'm plugged in, and I don't notice the indicator. Finally (about eight percent of the battery left), my computer makes a sound and a message pops up to warn me that the battery is very low.
ONE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION
You're in suspense wondering what you're missing in the other half of the conversation. Because the participants are thinking about the half of the conversation they are missing, they are not paying attention to the task at hand.
DO AGE AND MULTITASKING EXPERIENCE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Overhearing someone talking on a cell phone is more annoying than overhearing two people in conversation. If you require people to multitask, expect them to make a lot of mistakes and build in ways to correct mistakes afterwards.
WHY PEOPLE CAN’T RESIST PAYING ATTENTION TO FOOD, SEX, AND DANGER
What this means is that you just can't resist seeing food, sex, or danger, no matter how hard you try. You don't necessarily have to do anything as soon as you notice; for example, you don't have to eat the chocolate cake when you see it, you don't have to flirt with the attractive woman who walked into the room, and you don't have to run away from the big, scary guy who's with the pretty woman walked into the room.
PEOPLE HABITUATE TO STIMULI
If you're designing an application, you may have control over the sounds that occur when people take certain actions, such as making a mistake, achieving a goal, or donating money. If you use sounds to attract attention, consider changing them so that people don't get used to them and the sounds continue to attract attention.
49 FOR PEOPLE TO PAY ATTENTION TO SOMETHING, THEY MUST FIRST
SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY
If she sees a cancerous spot when none is there (false alarm), the patient may receive surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy when it is unnecessary. Psychologists study the various conditions that make it more likely for people to detect a signal accurately.
HOW TO APPLY SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY
The radiologist must decide whether there is a small dot on the image and whether it is cancer or not. On the other hand, if it misses a spot of cancer that was actually there, the patient may die because the treatment was not done early enough.
New research on motivation reveals that some of the supposedly tried-and-true methods for getting and keeping people motivated
WHAT
MOTIVATES
117 50 PEOPLE ARE MORE MOTIVATED WHEN THEY ARE CLOSER TO THEIR GOAL NUMBER 50.1Dropbox shows you how close you are to your goal. The shorter the distance to the goal, the more motivated people are to reach it.
WHAT THE CASINOS KNOW
In the 1960s and 1970s, operant conditioning was a theory in many university psychology departments around the world. In the 1960s and 1970s, operant conditioning was a theory in many university psychology departments around the world.
OPERANT THEORY AND DESIGN
You're not sure when you'll win, but you know that your chances of winning increase the more you play.
PLEASURE CHEMICAL OR MOTIVATION CHEMICAL?
Brain scan research shows that our brains show more stimulation and activity when we expect a reward than when we get it. Brain scan research shows that our brains show more stimulation and activity when we expect a reward than when we get it.
THE PAVLOVIAN REFLEX
140 CHARACTERS IS EVEN MORE ADDICTIVE
THE DOPAMINE LOOP
Brian Knutson (2001) found that when people are promised a monetary reward for work, there is increased activity in the nucleus accumbens - the same area that is active when people expect cocaine, tobacco or any addictive drug. Giving people money backfires because they will rely on the monetary reward and then be unwilling to work unless there is a monetary incentive.
FROM ALGORITHMIC WORK TO HEURISTIC WORK
PROGRESS, MASTERY, AND CONTROL
SMALL SIGNS OF PROGRESS CAN HAVE A BIG EFFECT
129 55 PEOPLE ARE MOTIVATED BY PROGRESS, MASTERY AND CONTROL FIGURE 55.4You can earn points at Livemocha by completing your lessons and. Each time you log in to Livemocha, you will see a dashboard showing your progress (Figure 55.5).
IS LAZY ANOTHER WORD FOR EFFICIENT?
SATISFY PLUS SUFFICE EQUALS SATISFICE
DESIGN WEB SITES FOR SCANNING, NOT READING
You make a decision that a particular website will be easy to use based on the impression the website gives after one or two seconds of viewing. People want to satisfy, i.e. search for the good enough solution rather than the optimal solution.
58 PEOPLE WILL LOOK FOR SHORTCUTS ONLY IF THE SHORTCUTS ARE EASY
PROVIDE DEFAULTS
BUT FOR YOU, IT’S SITUATIONAL
PEOPLE CAN’T STOP IT EVEN WHEN THEY KNOW THEY’RE DOING IT
HOW LONG IT TAKES TO CEMENT A HABIT
SOME BEHAVIORS BECOME HABIT FASTER THAN OTHERS
HOW BAD IS IT TO MISS A DAY?
COMPETING AGAINST 10 COMPETITORS VS. COMPETING AGAINST 100
We underestimate how important it is for people to be social. People will use whatever is around
This chapter looks at the science behind social interactions
PEOPLE ARE
SOCIAL
ANIMALS
DUNBAR’S NUMBER
THE SOCIAL GROUP SIZE LIMIT FOR HUMANS
These are relationships where you know who each person is and you know how each person relates to every other person in the group.
DOES THAT NUMBER SEEM LOW TO YOU?
IS IT THE WEAK TIES THAT ARE IMPORTANT?
If you're designing for strong connections, you need to create some physical proximity and make it possible for people to interact and get to know each other on the network. If you're designing for weak links, don't rely on direct communication between all the people in the network or physical proximity to a person.
MIRROR NEURONS FIRING
S. Ramachandran’s research on mirror neurons
In one group, the confederate imitated the participant's movements, and in the second group, the confederate did not imitate the participant. The group where the confederate had imitated the participant gave the confederate and the interaction in general higher ratings than the group where the confederate had not imitated the participant.
Because most online interactions do not occur with others in physical proximity, there are limited opportunities for designers to build in synchronous activity. Look for opportunities to build synchronous activity into your product, using live video streaming, or a live video or audio connection.
RULES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
ONLINE INTERACTIONS HAVE THE SAME RULES
If the website is unresponsive or takes too long to load, it's as if the person you're speaking to is not looking at you or is ignoring you. When designing a product, think about the interactions the person will have with it.
NINETY-TWO PERCENT OF GRADUATE STUDENTS LIED
MANAGERS LIE, TOO
PEOPLE LIE MOST ON THE TELEPHONE
68 SPEAKERS’ BRAINS AND LISTENERS’ BRAINS SYNC UP
SYNCING PLUS ANTICIPATION EQUALS UNDERSTANDING
He says that Facebook is your friends and relatives who you know well, even if you don't think alike about everything. It may be important to distinguish between social media for friends and family and social media for people with whom you are not yet connected.
TICKLE LAUGHTER VERSUS JOY LAUGHTER
REAL OR FAKE?
For years it was believed that Duchenne smiles were those considered genuine, that it was not possible to "fake" a smile because up to 80 percent of people cannot consciously control the muscles around the eyes that crinkle them .
QUESTIONING THE 80 PERCENT FIGURE
In addition to understanding the demographics of your audience, you also need to understand the demographics of your audience, you also need to understand their psychographics.
FEEL
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ARE UNIVERSAL; GESTURES ARE NOT
The seven basic emotions: joy, sadness, contempt, fear, disgust, surprise and anger are universal and are expressed through facial expressions and physical gestures. If you use images to communicate (such as images of people on a website), use one of the seven basic emotions in the image to communicate it most clearly.
Beware of unintentional facial expressions that can change how people feel about your product. For example, if the font on your website is very small and people squint and frown to read it, it can actually prevent them from feeling happy or friendly, and it can affect an action you want them to take to make.
THE SPECIAL OLFACTORY PATH
Scents have been experimented with in movie theaters and there is some research into using scents while people learn information online with a computer.
76 PEOPLE ARE PROGRAMMED TO ENJOY SURPRISES
CRAVING THE UNEXPECTED
Although a certain amount of consistency (on a website, for example) is a good thing if people are trying to complete a task, providing new and unexpected content and interactions is good if you want people to try something new , or if you want them to come back to see what's new.
PEOPLE NEED AN EXCUSE
Participants who had the option to rebuild the bracelet as it was before chose to just sit idle. But the participants who were told they could reassemble the bracelet into a new design chose to work on the bracelet rather than sit idle.
PASTORAL SCENES PROVIDE “ATTENTION RESTORATION”
Design factors, such as color, font, layout, and navigation, are critical to making it through the first “trust rejection” phase. If a website gets through the first rejection cut, content and credibility become the determining factors of whether the person trusts the website.
PLEASURE VERSUS ANTICIPATED PLEASURE
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY
SCARCITY AND EXCLUSIVITY
PEOPLE ARE POOR PREDICTORS
A BUILT-IN REGULATOR
If you're designing an interface where people are planning something in the future (winning the lottery, going on a trip, organizing a business event, building a house), they'll have more positive feelings about the experience the longer you can draw from the planning phase. If you're measuring satisfaction or other feelings, be aware that you'll get more positive feedback if you ask people a few days after an interaction than if you ask them while they're interacting with a product or website.
PEOPLE WANT WHAT’S FAMILIAR
THE DESIRE FOR THE FAMILIAR IS RELATED TO THE FEAR OF LOSS
Messages of fear or loss can be more persuasive if your brand is established. Messages of fun and happiness can be more persuasive if your brand is new.
To err is human, to forgive divine
PEOPLE MAKE
MISTAKES