Category: psychology

Think about all the things you see during a typical day. Your eyes are constantly taking in visual stimuli. But you don’t react to everything you see. A lot of it goes by without your brain or body reacting. Yet certain things do produce an immediate and strong reaction. If you see something that’s potentially…

It’s 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday and you’re at home in front of your laptop, browsing the Internet. You open your favorite news site and scan the headlines. You click on a story and read for a bit, then go back to the main page and scan some more. You choose another story, look at…

In 1948, H. L. de Vries was studying the eyes of men who were color blind. He made an amazing discovery that he mentioned only in passing, on the last page of the paper he wrote about his research. His discovery went virtually unnoticed for more than three decades. Before I tell you about the…

Whether you’re choosing stock images for a web page or deciding whether to show the subject of a photo straight on or in profile, consider people’s preference for symmetry. Take any object—a photo of a face or a drawing of a circle or a seashell—and draw a line down the middle either horizontally or vertically.…

Have you ever wondered why clients always prefer logos with curves rather than logos with interesting angles? Have you noticed that your favorite smartphones, tablets, and laptops tend to have rounded corners? What’s the big deal with those curves and rounded corners? People prefer objects with curves—a preference that’s evident even in brain scans. This…

Some people are familiar with our book 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People, but many don’t realize that there is a “sequel”: 100 MORE Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People. And even few realize that there is now a 2nd edition to the MORE book. So if you want to…