Psychology and UX Design

In the world of digital products, it is not uncommon for some of the following situations to occur:

• Users who interact with a site for a very short time and leave it;
• Online purchases that are not completed;
• Applications that are used only once and are deleted.

Whenever users interact with our products, psychological relationships are created and most of the problems faced by users can be solved by trying to understand their behavior. That's why psychology and UX Design are very connected.

Studies in the area of psychology also seek to understand what causes a person to like or dislike visual information: what colors, formats, and positions influence choice behavior; what strategies the brain uses to eliminate or select information.

Based on these studies, the UX Design area has increasingly implemented the understanding of psychology in its projects. Consequently, better understanding the human being, their needs, problems and expectations. That is, making the most humane and empathetic technology possible. This relationship brings benefits for the company, Designer and user!

Below is the list of 5 books that deal with psychology and UX Design like a successful partnership and learn more about it!

1) 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, by Susan Weinschenk

Author Susan Weinschenk is a psychologist who specializes in human behavior. She has written several books focused on UX Design, so this is a book aimed at professionals in this area - whether beginners or not.

In this book, Susan brings together 100 researchs/ studies which are intended to show the reader the behavioral triggers that lead people to decision-making.

Susan addresses the issue in sections:

• How people see;
• How people think and remember;
• How people decide;
• How people read and interpret information;
• How people are influenced by stories;
• How people relate to other people and to technology;
• How creativity, body, and demography influence design;
• How people consume;
• How people interact with interfaces and devices.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People it's not necessarily a book to be read all at once. It works like a book didactic, the chapters are short and at the end of them there is a summary of what was covered.

It's a quiet read and indispensable for the UX Designer to understand behavioral concepts of your users and how to work with them to design your products more efficiently.

The book is available at Amazon, in English.

2) Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, by Don Norman

This list could not miss a book by Don Norman, obviously.

Don, along with Jakob Nielsen and Bruce Tog, are considered the fathers of usability and founders of Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g). If there is an authoritative consultancy in UX, it is nN/g.

Don Norman has already written Other books on usability, including the classics The Design of Everyday Things And the The Design of Future Things.

Em Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, Don writes with a more mature view about how Emotions are important to people's daily lives and how they - the emotions - are linked to the usability and usefulness of objects.

”The result of everything you do has both a cognitive and an affective component: cognitive to give meaning, affective to give value” (NORMAN, 2004, p. 25)

The book focuses on 3 emotional pillars, which are essential for the user to create connections with the products:

• Visceral: how do people react to semblance of a product;
• Behavioural: the pleasure in use a product;
• Reflexive: rationalization of emotion and connexion with the product.

Don, to exemplify the whole theory, brings several case studies interesting.

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things It is a book that will make you take into account everything emotional aspect when developing a product. With reading, you will be able to understand what are the emotional needs of users and how they tend to them.

You can find the book at Amazon, in Portuguese.

Reading Tip: Emotional Design - Creating Valuable Products

3) Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy With Human Behavior, by Indi Young

In this book, author Indi Young addresses the importance of mental models in the development of UX Design projects.

Mental models are the How a particular group interprets the environment around them and how that environment influences their decisions.

In addition, the mental models are shared, that is, a pattern of mental model can be established for several individuals or different groups.

Indi Young, in her book, seeks to explain how and when to use mental models in your projects. To this end, she describes tools which they help identify the behavior, thinking, and feeling of their users, when they interact with a product/interface.

The book describes processes and diagrams for organizing research results with users.

After this first part, Young focuses on How to assemble and use mental models. It's interesting because she addresses topics from to Research with users even the way to analyze the results of those interviews.

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior It is an excellent book for the Designer who wants to better understand how remove important information from your users, in view of their behavior, and how to transform this information into accurate inputs for the development of a product.

The book is available at Amazon, in English.

4) Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? , by Susan Weinschenk

Author Susan Weinschenk appears on this list again, now with her book on Neuro Web Design.

Just like his other book, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? It's a well-organized and didactic book, easy to read.

In this book, Susan addresses persuasion concepts for the digital world, more specifically for Web Sites. After reading, it is possible to understand how user decision process within a site.

It's interesting because decision-making on a website is not necessarily and totally rational. It can be completely based on thrills And us instincts of the user.

Susan, explains the 3-brain theory:

• Ancient brain: or reptilian, is the brain whose primary concern is survival;
• Middle brain: where emotions and sentiments are processed;
• New brain: or cortex, where thoughts take place Conscious of people.

The author explains that an efficient site must be able to talk to all 3 brains of the user.

To conclude, Susan provides Tips and recommendations for the development of sites achieve the goal of talking to all types of people's brains.

Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? It is an essential book for the Designer who wants to understand better How to design better websites, in order to improve the user experience, ensuring better conversions.

The book is available at Amazon, in English.

Reading Tip: UI Standardization - Consistent Interface Design

5) The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg

The last book on our list doesn't have a theme directly connected to UX Design, as did the previous titles. However, the concepts brought in this book by Charles Duhigg can be applied to UX And yet, in life staffing of the reader.

Duhigg addresses how it's possible start or change a habit, based on the Habit Loop:

• Deixa: Trigger to start a routine activity;
• Routine: a stock of the habit itself;
• reward: what is wins, as a result of the routine.

The author explains that part of everyday decisions are made in automatic, as they are considered habits.

For the UX Design, understanding what a habit is important for product development. With clear concepts, it is possible build interfaces that make certain user interactions a habit.

It is important to emphasize that the application of these concepts, within the digital universe, must be done with a lot responsibility. Because habits are easy to create, depending on what rewards are tied to them, but they're not that simple to change or break.

The book can be found at Amazon, in Portuguese.