Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services

An understanding of psychology — specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces — is perhaps the single most valuable non-design skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design rather than working within the “blueprint” of how humans perceive and process the world around them. This talk dives into how designers can apply key principles from psychology to build products and experiences that are more intuitive and human-centered. We’ll explore which psychology concepts are most useful for designers, a framework for applying these principles to their own work and the ethical implications of doing so.

Transcript

1. Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services — JON YABLONSKI — JONYABLONSKI.COM @JONYABLONSKI — SEPTEMBER 2020
2. About me Multidisciplinary designer, speaker, writer, and digital creator based in Detroit. Currently working on the next generation of in-vehicle interactive experiences as a senior product designer at General Motors. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
3. Laws of UX Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services O’REILLY MEDIA | APR 2020 • Bookshop • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • O’Reilly Learning • Factum Books • Saxo • And more JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
4. Chapters 1.Jakob’s Law 2.Fitts’s Law 3.Hick’s Law 4.Miller’s Law 5.Postel’s Law 6.Peak-End Rule 7.Aesthetic-Usability Effect 8.von Restorff Effect 9.Tesler’s Law 10.Doherty Threshold 11.With Power Comes Responsibility 12.Applying Principles in Design JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
5. Laws of UX https://lawsofux.com/ JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
6. Jakob’s Law Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
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9. Mental Model A mental model is what we think we know about a system, especially about how it works. It’s how we use the knowledge we already have from past experiences when interacting with something new. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
10. Personas The frame of reference that personas help to define is incredibly valuable for teams: it helps team members move away from self-referential thinking and focus on the needs and goals of the user, which is useful for prioritizing new features. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
11. Peak-End Rule People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end, rather than the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
12. WHEN MORE PAIN IS PREFERRED TO LESS: ADDING A BETTER END JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
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14. Cognitive Bias Cognitive biases are systematic errors of thinking or rationality in judgment that influence our perception of the world and our decision-making ability. They work like shortcuts that increase our efficiency by enabling us to make quick decisions without the need to thoroughly analyze a situation. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
15. Journey Maps Journey mapping is invaluable for visualizing how people use a product or service through the narrative of accomplishing a specific task or goal. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
16. Hick’s Law The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices available. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
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20. Cognitive Load Cognitive load generally refers to the used amount of working memory resources. Within interaction design, it refers to the amount of mental resources needed to understand and interact with an interface. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
21. Card Sorting Great for figuring out how items should be organized according to people’s mental models by having participants organize topics within groups that make the most sense to them. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
22. With Power Comes Responsibility It’s critical that we consider how products and services have the potential to undermine the goals of the people using them. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
23. OPERANT CONDITIONING CHAMBER, AKA “SKINNER BOX” JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
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25. Quantitative data tells us lots of useful things, such as how quickly people are performing tasks, what they are looking at, and how they are interacting with the system. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
26. What this data doesn’t tell us is why users are behaving a certain way or how the product is impacting their lives. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
27. Applying Principles in Design How designers can internalize and apply the psychological principles and then articulate them through design principles. JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
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29. Laws of UX Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services O’REILLY MEDIA | APR 2020 • Bookshop • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • O’Reilly Learning • Factum Books • Saxo • And more JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM
30. Thank you Q&A JON YABLONSKI | JONYABLONSKI.COM