100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

Susan Weinschenk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0321767535 | ISBN-13: 978-0321767530 | Edition: 1

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?

These are just a few of the questions that the book answers in its deep-dive exploration of what makes people tick.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and over 30 years of experience as a behavioral scientist, applying psychology to the design of communication and online interactions. She is a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, start-ups, educational institutions, non-profits, and US government agencies. Susan is the founder of the Weinschenk Institute, LLC. She is a speaker and teacher, and has written several books, including How To Get People To Do Stuff, 100 Things Every Presenter Needs To Know About People, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, and Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? Susan writes two popular blogs: the Brain Wise blog at Psychology Today, and her own blog at her website: theteamw.com/blog.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (April 24, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321767535
• ISBN-13: 978-0321767530
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.5 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Applied Psychology
  • #3 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Desktop Publishing
  • #24 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Web Design

More About the Author

Susan has a Ph.D.in Psychology and over 30 years of experience as a behavioral psychologist. She speaks, consults, teaches, and writes books about applying psychology to the workplace.

While working on her Ph.D., Dr. Weinschenk conducted research on the left and right half of the brain. She was a college psychology professor at State University of New York (Oswego) and then began consulting. Early in her career she focused on applying cognitive psychology (how people think, remember, perceive), to make technology more usable. Recently she's gone back to her neuropsychology roots, studying the newest brain science and research on unconscious mental processing -- decision-making, persuasion, and emotion.

Susan started college at Virgina Tech and finished her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Northeastern. She then earned a Masters and Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University.

Susan founded and runs the Weinschenk Institute, LLC in Wisconsin (USA), where she lives with her husband. Her two children are grown and "launched". When not teaching, speaking, writing, or blogging, Susan performs in community theatre, sings jazz, reads books, and watches movies.

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#50 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#78 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Immediately useful tips May 25, 2011

By C. Jarrett

Format: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

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise yet densely packed with UX goodness July 5, 2011

By Tim

Format: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 of the book's segments:
* 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.

Amidst all the success of the book is some occasional lack of proofreading on the editor's part. This is not the author's fault, but I do think the editor was not up to the task. But that does not inhibit the usefulness of the book. It is dense, yet concise. A really good reference to keep on the shelf at one's desk, no matter what research and design projects one works on.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Hit or Miss: interesting trivia that's not always practical June 7, 2012

By Guest

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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!