6 ms·

The Psychology of Design

107 points by sanmak 5y ago

Okkef 5y ago
Random bold text and over use of emoji is not my kind of thing.
jmann99999 5y ago
I like this. The information section is a good checklist of reminders. I'm sure much of this comes naturally to an everyday designer. However, to someone who dapples in UX periodically, this is helpful.
seumars 5y ago
I really have a hard time with people who insist on framing UX design like some kind of social science that guarantees great design and meaningful experiences. This is yet another guide on design “laws” and “proven techniques” coming from the a single vendor, this time growth.design, using Design Thinking business jargon to add more faux legitimacy to their consultancy work.
- philosopher1234 5y ago
  I wish you explained why you felt this way, because I don’t understand.
  - karaterobot 5y ago
    I'm not the commenter you replied to, but I'm a designer who agrees with the sentiment. To me, it seems pseudo-scientific at best, creepy and manipulative at worst. It's like when I see a pop science book that is aimed at executives, with a sub-title like "how the latest quantum physics research can give you an edge in business!" Whatever validity the psychological principles underlying these observations may or may not have, they are almost certainly being misconstrued and oversimplified to sell easy answers to a lay audience.
- itisit 5y ago
  I call it Thought Leadership Marketing. Comes in many forms: whitepapers, mini-docs, reports, seminars, etc. All geared to demonstrate the specious superiority and sophistication of a given firm.
systemvoltage 5y ago
I can’t trust this article and instantly turned off by the excessive use of Emojis. You might argue - what’s the problem? I’d say, what’s the need! Do they add any value? Why combine semiological characters with an otherwise perfectly fine and widely accepted English orthography? Are they accessible? Is there a emotion being conveyed? Why add cognitive load? Is the design severely broken or dysfunctional without Emojis? Are you able to write well and convincingly without using Emojis as a crutch? Is there an ambiguity where emotional importance can make or break the central arguments being presented in text?
- tgv 5y ago
  > You might argue - what’s the problem? Bad design, that's the problem. It severely hinders reading.
- sbuk 5y ago
  Perhaps you're not a visual person. Words are great, but attention is finite and conveying meaning and nuance solely using the written word is hard (see Hacker News comments generally - mine included!). Pictograms, diagrams and even emoji's if used well can convey more with less. This site is perhaps a bit over the top, but (at time of writing) 1/4 of the comments are positive, so it's clearly of value to some (one is questioning the validity of UX, the other is just an opinion).
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    To conclude that pictograms are useless from my comment is not reading it incorrectly. Pictograms are incredibly useful in everyday life - from road signs to warning labels. A good book on this topic is Semiology of Graphics by Jacques Berkin and the classic 1936 book on International Pictographical Language which is what ISO 7001 standard is based on. To clarify again, I do not at all mean that pictograms are useless. Emojis are very useful in conveying emotions. Adding them as bullet points is decoration. I like Emojis in conversations and instant messages. I suggest reading long forms of text with emojis, I think they're an impedence. If I were to put a bet, Emojis mixed in long form articles would be severely more difficult to read in an objective pyschology test - I am a very visual person for the record but I find this term off-putting.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
prattatx 5y ago
The article lacks reference to the original peer reviewed research establishing these behavioral phenomena. While the intent is application, those who question should be able to dig into each distinct bias and the research behind them. Some, or many, of these may have helped us dominate as a species.
tmilard 5y ago
As one enngeneer who became a gui designer for the love of it, I can recall all the rules he describes: - Great rules I also stress the facts that most engenees are so bad to understand the reality of these human rules on design... Once, in a blog post a designer said this: - "Most engeneers are visualy Handicapt : Deal with it" I feel this is very true
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
LordAtlas 5y ago
Those emojis are like rainbow puke that actively hinder the reading of the text. The bright colours jump out so much that it's harder to stay anchored to the text. Rather ironic.
- hinkley 5y ago
  There is something that feels wrong with this page that I don’t think I experience with other content that uses icons. I wonder if the human brain is starting to segregate emoji from iconography the way we instinctively don’t look at ads on pages. (Last year I insisted a web app did not have a feature and after conversing with the vendor they showed me it was there, in a little ad-shaped rectangle to the right side of the page. My brain did not let me look at it)
papito 5y ago
If you want a non-shallow piece on what good UX actually means: "The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything" https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-makes-things-cool/508772/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-ma...
- kthejoker2 5y ago
  Raymond Loewy is a personal hero, Never Leave Well Enough Alone is a treasure trove of good thinking.
squid32 5y ago
Damn, I am amazed at the number of commenters hating this! I was unfamiliar with most of the concepts and some really make sense, and I like the lighthearted presentation. Of course this is also a kind of self-marketing, but it seems fair considering the amount of work that probably went into this.
- deltron3030 5y ago
  It's hated because it's respun content. This site is older much better (imo): https://lawsofux.com/ https://lawsofux.com/
lstamour 5y ago
LOL. I removed the emojis - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27008515 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27008515 - and then expanded all the available items to expand, hid some of the clutter and exported the list to PDF to read through it. Little did I expect that one of these would actually be a joke. It says a lot about the page design that items that look really similar, with emojis next to them, are indistinguishable from one another and thus information -- or jokes -- can hide in plain sight thanks to design decisions that downplay and don't highlight what might actually be relevant content. The fact that the lists are so long and this is buried down near the bottom of the last list says something about this. Only one comment of 128 comments mentions the Batman Curse according to a quick CTRL+F. ;-) And if you read that comment, it mentions a missing Law. ;-) > The Batman Curse > Animal attacks at a young age can sometimes turn people into vigilantes > THE BATMAN CURSE DEFINITION > Studies have shown that a child’s brain can produce unique hormones in reaction to dangerous animal encounters. During puberty, 1 out of 10 children will start seeing the effect of ADN alterations. Their brain becomes wired to look for justice. > THE BATMAN CURSE EXAMPLES > A recent surge of vigilantes cases in Watopia alerted authorities to investigate the Batman curse. One individual was arrested and revealed that he was attacked by bats when he was 6 years old. > Who needs a reference? Everybody knows it’s true, Fail·Design (2020)
alphabet9000 5y ago
the scrolling is messed up. the 'sticky header' at the top disables scrolling while it pops in and out of sight. more reason never to use animated sticky headers - just put position fixed on it and be done with it.

107 points by sanmak 5y ago

Random bold text and over use of emoji is not my kind of thing.

I like this. The information section is a good checklist of reminders. I'm sure much of this comes naturally to an everyday designer. However, to someone who dapples in UX periodically, this is helpful.

seumars 5y ago

I really have a hard time with people who insist on framing UX design like some kind of social science that guarantees great design and meaningful experiences. This is yet another guide on design “laws” and “proven techniques” coming from the a single vendor, this time growth.design, using Design Thinking business jargon to add more faux legitimacy to their consultancy work.

philosopher1234 5y ago
I wish you explained why you felt this way, because I don’t understand.
- karaterobot 5y ago
  I'm not the commenter you replied to, but I'm a designer who agrees with the sentiment. To me, it seems pseudo-scientific at best, creepy and manipulative at worst. It's like when I see a pop science book that is aimed at executives, with a sub-title like "how the latest quantum physics research can give you an edge in business!" Whatever validity the psychological principles underlying these observations may or may not have, they are almost certainly being misconstrued and oversimplified to sell easy answers to a lay audience.
itisit 5y ago
I call it Thought Leadership Marketing. Comes in many forms: whitepapers, mini-docs, reports, seminars, etc. All geared to demonstrate the specious superiority and sophistication of a given firm.

systemvoltage 5y ago

I can’t trust this article and instantly turned off by the excessive use of Emojis. You might argue - what’s the problem? I’d say, what’s the need! Do they add any value? Why combine semiological characters with an otherwise perfectly fine and widely accepted English orthography? Are they accessible? Is there a emotion being conveyed? Why add cognitive load? Is the design severely broken or dysfunctional without Emojis? Are you able to write well and convincingly without using Emojis as a crutch? Is there an ambiguity where emotional importance can make or break the central arguments being presented in text?

tgv 5y ago
> You might argue - what’s the problem? Bad design, that's the problem. It severely hinders reading.
sbuk 5y ago
Perhaps you're not a visual person. Words are great, but attention is finite and conveying meaning and nuance solely using the written word is hard (see Hacker News comments generally - mine included!). Pictograms, diagrams and even emoji's if used well can convey more with less. This site is perhaps a bit over the top, but (at time of writing) 1/4 of the comments are positive, so it's clearly of value to some (one is questioning the validity of UX, the other is just an opinion).
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  To conclude that pictograms are useless from my comment is not reading it incorrectly. Pictograms are incredibly useful in everyday life - from road signs to warning labels. A good book on this topic is Semiology of Graphics by Jacques Berkin and the classic 1936 book on International Pictographical Language which is what ISO 7001 standard is based on. To clarify again, I do not at all mean that pictograms are useless. Emojis are very useful in conveying emotions. Adding them as bullet points is decoration. I like Emojis in conversations and instant messages. I suggest reading long forms of text with emojis, I think they're an impedence. If I were to put a bet, Emojis mixed in long form articles would be severely more difficult to read in an objective pyschology test - I am a very visual person for the record but I find this term off-putting.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

prattatx 5y ago

The article lacks reference to the original peer reviewed research establishing these behavioral phenomena. While the intent is application, those who question should be able to dig into each distinct bias and the research behind them. Some, or many, of these may have helped us dominate as a species.

tmilard 5y ago

As one enngeneer who became a gui designer for the love of it, I can recall all the rules he describes: - Great rules I also stress the facts that most engenees are so bad to understand the reality of these human rules on design... Once, in a blog post a designer said this: - "Most engeneers are visualy Handicapt : Deal with it" I feel this is very true

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

LordAtlas 5y ago

Those emojis are like rainbow puke that actively hinder the reading of the text. The bright colours jump out so much that it's harder to stay anchored to the text. Rather ironic.

hinkley 5y ago
There is something that feels wrong with this page that I don’t think I experience with other content that uses icons. I wonder if the human brain is starting to segregate emoji from iconography the way we instinctively don’t look at ads on pages. (Last year I insisted a web app did not have a feature and after conversing with the vendor they showed me it was there, in a little ad-shaped rectangle to the right side of the page. My brain did not let me look at it)

papito 5y ago

If you want a non-shallow piece on what good UX actually means: "The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything" https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-makes-things-cool/508772/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-ma...

kthejoker2 5y ago
Raymond Loewy is a personal hero, Never Leave Well Enough Alone is a treasure trove of good thinking.

squid32 5y ago

Damn, I am amazed at the number of commenters hating this! I was unfamiliar with most of the concepts and some really make sense, and I like the lighthearted presentation. Of course this is also a kind of self-marketing, but it seems fair considering the amount of work that probably went into this.

deltron3030 5y ago
It's hated because it's respun content. This site is older much better (imo): https://lawsofux.com/ https://lawsofux.com/

lstamour 5y ago

LOL. I removed the emojis - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27008515 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27008515 - and then expanded all the available items to expand, hid some of the clutter and exported the list to PDF to read through it. Little did I expect that one of these would actually be a joke. It says a lot about the page design that items that look really similar, with emojis next to them, are indistinguishable from one another and thus information -- or jokes -- can hide in plain sight thanks to design decisions that downplay and don't highlight what might actually be relevant content. The fact that the lists are so long and this is buried down near the bottom of the last list says something about this. Only one comment of 128 comments mentions the Batman Curse according to a quick CTRL+F. ;-) And if you read that comment, it mentions a missing Law. ;-) > The Batman Curse > Animal attacks at a young age can sometimes turn people into vigilantes > THE BATMAN CURSE DEFINITION > Studies have shown that a child’s brain can produce unique hormones in reaction to dangerous animal encounters. During puberty, 1 out of 10 children will start seeing the effect of ADN alterations. Their brain becomes wired to look for justice. > THE BATMAN CURSE EXAMPLES > A recent surge of vigilantes cases in Watopia alerted authorities to investigate the Batman curse. One individual was arrested and revealed that he was attacked by bats when he was 6 years old. > Who needs a reference? Everybody knows it’s true, Fail·Design (2020)

alphabet9000 5y ago

the scrolling is messed up. the 'sticky header' at the top disables scrolling while it pops in and out of sight. more reason never to use animated sticky headers - just put position fixed on it and be done with it.