100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Apply psychology and behavioral science to web, UX, and graphic design

Behavioral science leader and CEO at The Team W, Inc., Susan M. Weinschenk, provides a guide that every designer needs, combining real science and research with practical examples on everything from font size to online interactions. 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 motivates people?
• How does listening to music make people feel?
• How do you engineer a decision?
• What line length for text is best?
• Are some fonts better than others?

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. Increase the effectiveness of your designs by using science-backed examples on human behavior.

"Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so well-written, researched, and designed that I just can't put it down. That's how good 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is!"

—Lynne Cooke, Clinical Assistant Professor at Arizona State University

Dr. Susan Weinschenk has a PhD in Psychology and 30+ years of experience as a behavioral psychologist. She applies research in psychology to predict, understand, and explain what motivates people and how they behave. Her books also include How to Get People to Do Stuff: Master the Art and Science of Persuasion and Motivation; 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People, and Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? She writes a popular blog at her website: theteamw.com/blog.

Part I: 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 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 Computer Screen Is Harder Than Reading Paper 18. People Read Faster with a Longer Line Length, But They Prefer a Shorter Line Length
Part II: 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
Part III: 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
Part IV: How People Focus Their Attention 40. Attention Is Selective 41. People Filter 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
Part V: What Motivates People 50. People Are More Motivated as They Get Closer to a Goal 51. Variable Rewards Are Powerful 52. Dopamine Makes People Addicted to Seeking 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
Part VI: 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 Type of Media They Are Using to Communicate 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
Part VII: How People Feel 72. Some Emotions Are Universal 73. Emotions Are Tied to Muscle Movement and Vice Versa 74. Anecdotes Persuade More Than Data 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
Part VIII: 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. Group Decision Making Can Be Faulty 97. People Make Either Value Decisions or Habit Decisions, 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