Category: psychology

One of the ideas I talk about a lot when I give keynotes is that technology changes quickly but humans don’t. Most of the ways that people’s eyes, ears, bodies, and brains work has come about from eons of evolution. And these aren’t likely to change quickly. I did say most. Reading is an exception.…

That is, if they read it at all. Clicking Doesn’t Mean Reading As the CEO of Chartbeat, a company that analyzes real-time web analytics, Tony Haile (2014) has seen a lot of data on what people are doing online. In the advertising world, clicks were king for a long time. A lot of money has…

You are, unfortunately, working late at night again. You have a report due in the morning but it isn’t quite done, so you’re sitting in your home office trying to finish it. You decide to take a short break from the report and read one of the blogs you try and keep up with. You…

If you’ve ever had to name a button on a website, app, or landing page, then you’ve probably had the moment where you’re going back and forth between options. “Sign up” or “Register”? “Order” or “Shopping cart”? Is there a way to word these requests, actions, or buttons that encourages people to take action? Gregory…

For years, I—and most other designers I know—have believed, and written, and taught that if you want whatever you’re designing to be easy to understand and use, then you have to make it easy to read. You have to use a font size that’s large enough, a font type that’s plain and not too decorative,…

If you’ve ever deleted some information and then realized that you didn’t want to delete it and tried to undo the action you will realize how important feedback is to humans. The computer doesn’t need to tell you that it in fact reversed the action and your files are still there. But the human needs…

People don’t like being bored. It’s boring to be bored. People prefer taking action because it provides a sense of control and reduces uncertainty. One of the reasons that modern apps and social media are so popular is that they are easy to use in situations where you are waiting and would normally be bored,…

People are strongly influenced by the emotional state they are in. Later, when thinking back on an event, they may not remember how emotionally charged they were in the moment. This may lead to inconsistent predictions about future behavior. Research by Morewedge (2005), Ariely and Lowenstein (2006) and Wilson (2003) shows that memory of emotions,…

Imagine you’re scanning music on your smartphone to decide what to listen to next. You’re looking at a list of songs. You decide which song you want, and then you move your finger to touch the name of the song to start it playing. What’s so interesting about that? What’s interesting is that your description…

Let’s return to Jim, who was looking into buying a new car. He’s debating whether to get a small budget sedan or a larger sport utility vehicle with lots of bells and whistles. Psychologists have had two competing theories—the prototype theory and the exemplar theory—about how people think about decisions like these. The prototype theory…