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100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
- By Susan Weinschenk
- Published Apr 14, 2011 by New Riders. Part of the Voices That Matter series.
- Copyright 2011
- Dimensions: 7" x 9"
- Pages: 256
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-76753-5
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-76753-0
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Product Author Bios
Susan Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and a 30-year career in applying psychology to the design of technology. She has written several books on user-centered design. Her 2008 book, Neuro Web Design: What makes them click?, published by New Riders, applies the research on neuroscience to the design of web sites. A popular speaker and presenter, her nickname is "The Brain Lady". She is Chief of User Experience Strategy, Americas, at Human Factors International, and runs a popular blog: Whatmakesthemclick.net.
We design to elicit responses from people. We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it you’ll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that matches the way people think, work, and play.
Learn to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your own design projects by finding the answers to questions such as:
- What grabs and holds attention on a page or screen?
- What makes memories stick?
- What is more important, peripheral or central vision?
- How can you predict the types of errors that people will make?
- What is the limit to someone’s social circle?
- How do you motivate people to continue on to (the next step?
- What line length for text is best?
- Are some fonts better than others?
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47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Immediately useful tips, By C. Jarrett "forms and usability expert" (Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews 
This review is from: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
This appealing short book brings together little nuggets of psychology, which the author makes immediately relevant to design decisions.It's simply and clearly written. You can choose whether to read it straight through, focus on just one of the 10 sections, or simply pick out a single item of the 100. Each one is: - self-contained, - described with an example, - supported by appropriate research, and - finishes with one or more 'Takeaways' that you can use immediately.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Concise yet densely packed with UX goodness, By
This review is from: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
I have been waiting for a book like this for so many years now. I think with every profession there are certain ideas that are taken for granted and, over the decades, become "fact" for practitioners. But just because research showed something 40 years ago doesn't mean that study was well done, or correct, in the first place. The strength of this book is that the author cites more recent research about principles you either thought you knew, and were wrong, or that you thought you knew, and are still right. I feel a certain sense of liberation reading a book like this, because if you cannot challenge your closely held beliefs, what kind of professional are you?The structure is terrifically usable: one hundred "chapters" that are often only 1 or 2 pages long. In a book like this, the references are as valuable as the author's own writing. I can look up the sources and make up my own mind if I have any questions. But most of the time, I appreciate the author's explanations... Read more
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Hit or Miss: interesting trivia that's not always practical, By
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This review is from: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
I was hoping that this book would be a great complement to the classic "Don't Make Me Think!" (which has stood the test of time).While I do find all of the studies & facts cited to be certainly interesting, not very many of them necessarily lead to actionable results. For example, she'll talk about the importance of peripheral vision, but I would have liked more "AND SO THIS IS WHAT THIS MEANS" added. That is, it's great to know that people process images / words in certain ways, but the information provided is either 1) obvious ("people are social animals" -- oh really? I hadn't noticed) or a 2) bit vague. I realize that much in design is subjective and so you can't make absolute statements, but still...it just doesn't feel substantive enough for me. Thankfully, I've kept my copy pristine and will be selling it back to Amazon (unlike Krug's book, which I refer to frequently). Cheers! |
Online Sample Chapter
Table of Contents
The Psychology of Design
How People See
How People Read
How People Remember
How People Think
How People Focus Their Attention
What Motivates People
People Are Social Animals
How People Feel
People Make Mistakes
How People Decide
Bibliography
INDEX
Sample Pages
Download Chapter 4: There's a Special Part of the Brain Just for Recognizing Faces
Updates & Corrections
Page 126, under "FROM ALGORITHMIC WORK TO HEURISTIC WORK," in the sentence:
"But now 70 percent of people (in developing countries) do heuristic work—there are no set procedures."
The text should read "in developed countries" instead of "in developing countries."
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