Design Psychology

1
How to use psychology for design?
2
Psychological Principles that affects peoples
perception of your design

• Mental Models
• The Von Restorff Effect
• Gestalt Principles
• Visceral Reactions
• The Psychology of Color
• The Psychology of Shapes
• Dual-Coding Theory
• Cost-Benefit Analysis

3
Mental Models

• Mental modelling is the process of mapping
  out what a person understands about the real
  world through experience and replicating those
  models in the design of something in the virtual
  space. This is all about trying to uncover your
  audiences intuitive process.
• Think of your computer files and folders. Theyre
  based on the same old-school method of organizing
  hard files, so its easy for the user to
  understand -- despite the visual looking rather
  different.
• Throughout your design process, do an intuitive
  check. Are your visuals moving right to left,
  top to bottom? Is your message clear and easy to
  understand, or is it unintentionally hidden?

4
The Von Restorff Effect

• The Von Restorff effect is, quite simply, the
  idea that the oddball out is the one that gets
  remembered.
• When designing, sometimes you want your
  audiences eye to be drawn to one spot --even if
  there are other design elements around it. This
  might mean using a different color, font, size,
  etc.
• For instance, in CTA creation, you can use the
  Von Restorff to create contrast on your page and
  draw your users attention

5
Gestalt Principles

• Gestalt psychology explores how elements are
  perceived in relation to each other visually. The
  gestalt principles, or gestalt laws, focus
  specifically on how design elements are grouped
  together.
• Proximity The idea that when objects are placed
  in close proximity to one another, those objects
  are seen as a group rather than seen
  individually. 
• Similarity Objects that look similar will be
  perceived as one object or as a part of the same
  group.
• Closure Closure occurs when a shape is still
  perceived as a whole even when the object is not
  fully closed in reality.
• Continuity Occurs as the eye moves naturally
  from one object to the other. This often happens
  through the creation of curved lines allowing the
  eye to flow with the line.
• Figure ground When the eye notices an object
  as an object, it separates the object (figure)
  from the surrounding area (the ground). 

6
Visceral Reactions

• Visceral Reaction is the kind of reaction that
  just comes from the gut.
• Designing for visceral reactions is essentially
  designing to create a positive aesthetic
  impression. To some extent it takes just knowing
  what looks pleasing to people and what doesn't.

7
The Psychology of Color

• We often associate different colors with feelings
  or thoughts, so designers have done a lot of
  research to find out which colors humans
  associate with different moods.
• Blue Secure, calm, honest, trustworthy, strong,
  caring
• Red Energy, love, exciting, action, bold,
  passionate
• Orange Happy, sociable, friendly, affordable
• Yellow Logical, optimistic, forward-thinking,
  confidence, playful
• Purple Imaginative, creative, nostalgic
• Green Growth, organic, natural, caring, fresh,
  earth
• Black Sophistication, luxury, seductive, formal,
  authority
• Multi-color Multi-channel, positive, playful,
  bold, boundless

8
The Psychology of Shapes

• Like colors, humans associate different shapes
  with certain emotions and characteristics.
  Although less of a principle itself,
  the psychology of shapes boils down to studies
  that have shown which characteristics people
  match with certain shapes.
• Circles, Ovals, and Ellipses Positive emotional
  messages attached to community, friendship, love,
  relationships, unity, and femininity.
• Squares and Triangles Stability and balance,
  strength, professionalism, efficiency, power, and
  masculinity.
• Vertical Lines Masculinity, strength, and
  aggression.
• Horizontal Lines Community, tranquillity, and
  calm.

9
Dual-Coding Theory

• Dual-coding theory is the idea that both visual
  and verbal cues can represent ideas, but using
  both can help the brain recall those ideas
  faster. In other words, we need visual and verbal
  information to digest and remember information.
• When designing, this means illustrating ideas as
  much as possible, while still using verbal
  messages to fully explain ideas.

10
Cost-Benefit Analysis

• Whether we consciously think it or not, every
  decision we make goes through a cost benefit
  analysis, which is simply the process of weighing
  the costs and the benefits of an action before we
  take it.
• If the costs outweigh the benefits, we dont take
  action.
• As designers, our job is to make sure whatever we
  have designed has benefits that outweigh the
  costs. This means making our content as simple as
  possible for the audience while still
  fulfilling the goal of the content.
• Think of a form submission on your landing pages.
  Say you want to offer your audience some
  top-of-the-funnel content like a template or
  high-level e-book.
• When you strategize about getting users to fill
  out a form to claim this content, you have to
  remember to design your conversion process with
  your audience cost-benefit analysis in mind. In
  other words, don't ask for more than you need. 

11
(No Transcript)