Summary: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People

One of the professional development training items on the books for FY17-18 at work was a book I’ve had on my to-read list for several years: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People by Susan Weinschenk, PhD.

This post gives a quick overview of what I learned, with more details to be found in this PDF.

Overview

“Whether you’re designing a Web site or a medical device — or something somewhere in between — your audience is comprised of the people who will benefit from that design. And the totality of your audience’s experience is profoundly impacted by what you know — or don’t know — about them. How do they think? How do they decide? What motivates them to click or purchase or whatever it is you want them to do?”

How People See

  • What you see isn’t what your brain gets
  • Peripheral vision is used more than central vision to get the gist of what you see
  • People identify objects by recognizing patterns
  • There’s a special part of the brain for just recognizing faces
  • People imagine objects tilted and at a slight angle above
  • People scan screens based on past experience and expectations
  • People see cues that tell them what to do with an object
  • People can miss changes in their visual fields
  • People believe that things are close together belong together
  • Red and blue together are hard on the eyes
  • 9% of men and 0.5% of women are color-blind
  • The meanings of colors vary by culture

How People Read

  • It’s a myth that capital letters are inherently hard to read
  • Reading and comprehending are two different things
  • Pattern recognition helps people identify letters in different fonts
  • Font size matters
  • Reading a computer screen is harder than reading paper
  • People read faster with a longer line length, but they prefer a shorter line length

How People Remember

  • Short-term memory is limited
  • People remember only four items at once
  • People have to use information to make it stick
  • It’s easier to recognize information rather than recall it
  • Memory takes a lot of mental resources
  • People reconstruct memories each time they remember them
  • It’s a good thing that people forget
  • The most vivid memories are wrong

How People Think

  • People process information better in bite-sized chunks
  • Some types of mental processing are more challenging than others
  • Minds wander 30% of the time
  • The more uncertain people are, the more they defend their ideas
  • People create mental models
  • People interact with conceptual models
  • People process information best in story form
  • People learn best from examples
  • People are driven to create categories
  • Time is relative
  • There are four ways to be creative (deliberate vs. spontaneous / cognitive vs. emotional)
  • People can be in a flow state
  • Culture affects how people think

How People Focus Their Attention

  • Attention is selective
  • People filter information
  • Well-practiced skills don’t require conscious attention
  • Expectations of frequency affect attention
  • Sustained attention lasts about ten minutes
  • People pay attention only to salient clues
  • People can’t actually multitask
  • Danger, food, sex, movement, faces, and stories get the most attention
  • Loud noises startle and get attention
  • For people to pay attention to something, they must first perceive it

What Motivates People

  • People are more motivated as they get closer to a goal
  • Variable rewards are powerful
  • Dopamine makes people addicted to seeking information
  • Unpredictability keeps people searching
  • People are more motivated by intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards
  • People are motivated by progress, mastery, and control
  • People’s ability to delay gratification (or not) starts young
  • People are inherently lazy
  • People will look for shortcuts only if the shortcuts are easy
  • People assume it’s you, not the situation
  • Forming a habit takes a long time and requires small steps
  • People are more motivated to compete when there are fewer competitors
  • People are motivated by autonomy

People Are Social Animals

  • The “strong tie” group size limit is 150 people
  • People are hard-wired for imitation and empathy
  • Doing things together bonds people together
  • People expect online interactions to follow social rules
  • People lie to differing degrees depending on the media
  • Speakers’ brains and listeners’ brains sync up during communication
  • The brain responds uniquely to people you know personally
  • Laughter bonds people together
  • People can tell when a smile is real or fake more accurately with video

How People Feel

  • Seven basic emotions are universal
  • Emotions are tied to muscle movement and vice versa
  • Anecdotes persuade more than data
  • Smells evoke emotions and memories
  • People are programmed to enjoy surprises
  • People are happier when they’re busy
  • Pastoral scenes make people happy
  • People use look-and-feel as their first indicator of trust
  • Listening to music releases dopamine in the brain
  • The more difficult something is to achieve, the more people like it
  • People overestimate reactions to future events
  • People feel more positive before and after an event than during it
  • People want what is familiar when they’re sad or scared

People Make Mistakes

  • People will always make mistakes; there is no fail-safe product
  • People make errors when they are under stress
  • Not all mistakes are bad
  • People make predictable types of errors
  • People use different error strategies

How People Decide

  • People make most decisions unconsciously
  • The unconscious knows first
  • People want more choices and information than they can process
  • People think choice equals control
  • People may care about time more than they care about money
  • Mood influences the decision-making process
  • Group decision-making can be faulty
  • People are swayed by a dominant personality
  • When people are uncertain, they let others decide what to do
  • People think others are more easily influenced than they are themselves
  • People value a product more highly when it’s physically in front of them