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

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