Visual Systems
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
Susan Weinschenk — 2011
In this foundational text, behavioral scientist Susan Weinschenk bridges the gap between neuroscience and design practice, offering 100 practical principles derived from psychology research. She explains not just how users behave, but the biological and evolutionary reasons why—demystifying everything from why we are addicted to text messages to why we scan screens instead of reading them. It is an essential guide for creating intuitive, user-centered interfaces that work with, rather than against, the human brain’s natural limitations and capabilities.
- ISBN
- 0321767535
- ISBN 13
- 978-0136746911
- Pages
- 242
- Reading time
- 20
- Level
- Intermediate
- Publisher
- New Riders Pub
- Edition release date
- 01/01/2011
Notable Quotes
“You think that as you’re walking around looking at the world, your eyes are sending information to your brain, which processes it and gives you a realistic experience of 'what’s out there.' But the truth is that what your brain comes up with isn’t exactly what your eyes are seeing. Your brain is constantly interpreting everything you see.”
“People are willing to click multiple times. In fact, they won’t even notice they’re clicking if they’re getting the right amount of information at each click to keep them going down the path. Think progressive disclosure; don’t count clicks.”
“If you want people to take action on an object, whether in real life or on a computer screen, you need to make sure that they can easily perceive, figure out, and interpret what the object is and what they can and should do with it.”
“The brain can only process small amount of information at a time—consciously, that is. (The estimate is that you handle 40 billion pieces of information every second, but only 40 of those make it to your conscious brain.)”
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