100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Quotes

“People seek out and pay attention to information and cues that confirm their beliefs. They don’t seek out—in fact, they ignore or even discount—information that doesn’t support what they already believe.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“People are very willing to click multiple times. In fact, they won’t even notice they’re clicking if they’re getting the right amount of information at each click to keep them going down the path. Think progressive disclosure; don’t count clicks.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“When we’re unsure about what to do or buy, we look to testimonials, ratings, and reviews to tell us how to behave.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Be aware that most people, most of the time, are more influenced by time and experiences that produce a personal connection than money or possessions.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Even though it isn’t necessarily true, people equate having choices with having control.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Favor 2D elements over 3D ones. The eyes communicate what they see to the brain as a 2D object. 3D representations on the screen may actually slow down recognition and comprehension.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Information is addictive. It’s only when people are confident in their decisions that they stop seeking more information.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Edison is a great example of someone who used deliberate and cognitive creativity.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“You’ve probably had the experience of encountering a door handle that doesn’t work the way it should: the handle looks like you should pull, but in fact you need to push.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Don’t just give people evidence that their belief is not logical, or tenable, or a good choice. This may backfire and make them dig in even harder.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“First you sort the items into like categories. Using color for sorting is common, but you can also use other characteristics, such as texture or type of handling needed. Once you have sorted”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“It’s easy for people to share information now, and for that information to be widely disseminated. This free flow of information and opinions may mean that people are collectively making poorer decisions.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Even though it isn’t necessarily true, people equate having choices with having control. If people are to feel in control, then they need to feel that their actions are powerful and that they have choices to make.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“To design a product or Web site that persuades people to take a certain action, you need to know the unconscious motivations of your target audience.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Errors with a positive consequence are actions that do not give the desired result, but provide the person with information that helps him or her achieve an overall goal.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“People don’t like to be idle. • People will do a task rather than be idle, but the task has to be seen as worthwhile. If people perceive it to be busywork, then they prefer to stay idle. • People who are busy are happier. • If you have a task that requires people to wait, you’d better have something interesting for them to do while waiting.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“The goal-gradient effect says that you will accelerate your behavior as you progress closer to your goal.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Sight: If you’re standing at a high point in total darkness, you can see a candle 30 miles away. Sound: If you’re in a very quiet room, you can hear a watch ticking 20 feet away. Smell: You can smell a drop of perfume in about 800 square feet of space. Touch: You can feel a human hair on your skin. Taste: You can taste a teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“People can hold three or four things in working memory as long as they aren’t distracted and their processing of the information is not interfered with.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“In the field of design, a mental model refers to the representation of something—the real world, a device, software, and so on—that a person has in mind. People create mental models very quickly,”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“still won out, even though we most often see cats or very small dogs from high above, not just slightly above (unless you crawl around on the ground a lot). It seems to be a universal trait that we think about, remember, imagine, and recognize objects from this canonical perspective. Takeaways • People recognize a drawing or object faster and remember it better if it’s shown in the canonical perspective. • If you have icons at your Web site or in your Web or software application, draw them from a canonical”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Avoid forcing people to multitask. It is difficult for them to do two things at once,”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“intentionally so. My favorite was from a company in Texas. When there was a “fatal” error, meaning the system was going to crash, a message came up that said, “Shut ‘er down Henry, she’s spewin’ up mud!”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Design factors, such as color, font, layout, and navigation, are critical in making it through the first “trust rejection” phase.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Give people a small, easy task to do, rather than a complex one.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Eventually (about eight percent of battery left), my computer makes a sound and a message pops up to alert me that the battery is very low. This is an example of signaling when an event is infrequent, but important. (I wish that Apple gave me the option of customizing when I want to be alerted, however. By the time I get the alert, the battery is really low. Then I run around panicked trying to find my plug or an outlet, or saving files.)”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“One of the major reasons to do user or customer research is so that you can identify and understand the schemata that your particular target audience has.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“When designing color coding, consider colors that work for everyone, for example, varying shades of brown and yellow. Avoid red, green, and blue.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Don’t assume that people will see something on a computer screen just because it’s there. This is especially true when you refresh a screen and make one change on it. Users may not even realize they are even looking at a different screen.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People