100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People: (Voices That Matter)

Apply psychology and behavioural science to your designs.

We design to elicit responses from people. We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With this book you'll design more intuitive and engaging apps, software, websites and products that match the way people think, decide and behave.

Here are some of the questions this book will answer:

• What grabs and holds attention.
• What makes memories stick?
• What is more important, peripheral or central vision?
• Can you predict the types of errors people will make?
• What is the limit to someone's social circle?
• What line length for text is best?
• Are some fonts better than others?

These are just a few of the questions that the book answers in its deep-dive exploration of what makes people tick.

Preview pages to 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People >

• How People See
• 1. What You See Isn't What Your Brain Gets
• 2. Peripheral Vision Is Used More Than Central Vision to Get the Gist of What You See
• 3. People Identify Objects by Recognizing Patterns
• 4. There's a Special Part of the Brain Just for Recognizing Faces
• 5. There Is a Special Part of the Brain for Processing Simple Visual Features
• 6. People Scan Screens Based on Past Experience and Expectations
• 7. People See Cues That Tell Them What to Do with An Object
• 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. The Meanings of Colors Vary by Culture How People Read
• How People Read
• 13. It's a Myth That Uppercase Letters Are Inherently Hard to Read
• 14. Reading and Comprehending Are Two Different Things
• 15. Pattern Recognition Helps People Identify Letters in Different Fonts
• 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
• 20. People Remember Only Four Items at Once
• 21. People Have to Use Information to Make It Stick
• 22. It's Easier to Recognize Information Than Recall It
• 23. Memory Takes a Lot of Mental Resources
• 24. People Reconstruct Memories Each Time They Remember Them
• 25. It's a Good Thing That People Forget
• 26. The Most Vivid Memories Are Wrong
• How People Think
• 27. People Process Information Better in Bite-Sized Chunks
• 28. Some Types of Mental Processing Are More Challenging Than Others
• 29. Minds Wander 30 Percent of the Time
• 30. The More Uncertain People Are, the More They Defend Their Ideas
• 31. People Create Mental Models
• 32. People Interact with Conceptual Models
• 33. People Process Information Best in Story Form
• 34. People Learn Best from Examples
• 35. People Are Driven to Create Categories
• 36. Time Is Relative
• 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
• How People Focus Their Attention
• 40. Attention Is Selective
• 41. People Habituate Information
• 42. Well-Practiced Skills Don't Require Conscious Attention
• 43. Expectations of Frequency Affect Attention
• 44. Sustained Attention Lasts About Ten Minutes
• 45. People Pay Attention Only to Salient Cues
• 46. People Are Worse at Multitasking Than They Think
• 47. Danger, Food, Sex, Movement, Faces, and Stories Get the Most Attention
• 48. Loud Noises Startle and Get Attention
• 49. For People to Pay Attention to Something, They Must First Perceive It
• What Motivates People
• 50. People Are More Motivated as They Get Closer to a Goal
• 51. Variable Rewards Are Powerful
• 52. Dopamine Stimulates the Seeking of Information
• 53. Unpredictability Keeps People Searching
• 54. People Are More Motivated by Intrinsic Rewards Than Extrinsic Rewards
• 55. People Are Motivated by Progress, Mastery, and Control
• 56. People Are Motivated by Social Norms
• 57. People Are Inherently Lazy
• 58. People Will Look for Shortcuts Only If the Shortcuts Are Easy
• 59. People Assume It's You, Not the Situation
• 60. Forming or Changing a Habit Is Easier Than You Think
• 61. People Are More Motivated to Compete When There Are Fewer Competitors
• 62. People Are Motivated by Autonomy
• People Are Social Animals
• 63. The 'Strong Tie' Group Size Limit Is 150 People
• 64. People Are Hard Wired for Imitation and Empathy
• 65. Doing Things Together Bonds People Together
• 66. People Expect Online Interactions to Follow Social Rules
• 67. People Lie to Differing Degrees Depending on the Medium
• 68. Speakers' Brains and Listeners' Brains Sync Up During Communication
• 69. The Brain Responds Uniquely to People You Know Personally
• 70. Laughter Bonds People Together
• 71. People Can Tell When a Smile Is Real or Fake More Accurately with Video
• How People Feel
• 72. Some Emotions May Be Universal
• 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
• 76. People Are Programmed to Enjoy Surprises
• 77. People Are Happier When They're Busy
• 78. Pastoral Scenes Make People Happy
• 79. People Use 'Look and Feel' as Their First Indicator of Trust
• 80. Listening to Music Releases Dopamine in the Brain
• 81. The More Difficult Something Is to Achieve, the More People Like It
• 82. People Overestimate Reactions to Future Events
• 83. People Feel More Positive Before and After an Event Than During It
• 84. People Want What Is Familiar When They Are Sad or Scared
• People Make Mistakes
• 85. People Will Always Make Mistakes; There Is No Fail-Safe Product
• 86. People Make Errors When They Are Under Stress
• 87. Not All Mistakes Are Bad
• 88. People Make Predictable Types of Errors
• 89. People Use Different Error Strategies
• How People Decide
• 90. People Make Most Decisions Unconsciously
• 91. The Unconscious Knows First
• 92. People Want More Choices and Information Than They Can Process
• 93. People Think Choice Equals Control
• 94. People May Care About Time More Than They Care About Money
• 95. Mood Influences the Decision- Making Process
• 96. You Can Engineer Better Group Decisions
• 97. People Make Habit-Based Decisions or Value-Based Decisions, but Not Both at the Same Time
• 98. When People Are Uncertain, They Let Others Decide What to Do
• 99. People Think Others Are More Easily Influenced Than They Are Themselves
• 100. People Value a Product More Highly When It's Physically in Front of Them

Susan M. Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology and is the Chief Behavioral Scientist and the CEO at The Team W, Inc. She is a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, start-ups, governments and non-profits. Dr. Weinschenk is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin.