Top 10 articles about Psychology & UX in 2017 Q4

We’re already at the end of 2017 and it means also the end of Q4 at Cognitive UxD. Based on your insights I’ve just made a list about the most popular articles in Psychology & UX over the past 3-months. Enjoy it!

1. Confirmation bias: Why you make terrible life choices. | Lakshmi Mani Read more 👉

Confirmation bias is the human tendency to seek, interpret and remember information that confirms your own pre-existing beliefs.

2. UX & Psychology go hand in hand — How Gestalt theory appears in UX design? | Norbi Gaal Read more 👉

In the age of AI and “Human Centered Machine Learning”, it’s essential that we understand the needs and behaviour of our users. This is doubly true as a UX designer. In order to create work that better serves the needs of our users, it’s important to understand some basic psychological principles.

3. Four psychology principles every UX designer should know. | Becca Kennedy Read more 👉

There’s a darn good reason that there are so many PSYCHOLOGY+UX articles floating around. User experience design has its conceptual roots in cognitive and behavioural psychology.

4. Ways To Get People To Do Things They Don’t Want To Do | Nir Eyal Read more 👉

Getting people to do uninteresting tasks (specifically those that are infrequent and involve work done outside normal responsibilities) is a common challenge. What are the ways to get people to do things they don’t want to do?

5. Are Notifications A Dark Pattern? | Andrew Wilshere Read more 👉

Have you ever had a nightmare where you were literally drowning in little red notification badges? I did once, and it got me thinking: what actually are notifications? In this article, I explore the phenomenon of “pseudo-notifications”, and conclude with some thoughts on what the future might hold for notifications as a design pattern.

6. You Are Not the User: The False-Consensus Effect. | Raluca Budiu Read more 👉

Designers, developers, and even UX researchers fall prey to the false-consensus effect, projecting their behaviors and reactions onto users. The false-consensus effect refers to people’s tendency to assume that others share their beliefs and will behave similarly in a given context. Only people who are very different from them would make different choices.

7. Mental Models | Jakob Nielsen Read more 👉

A mental model is what the user believes about the system at hand. What users believe they know about a UI strongly impacts how they use it. Mismatched mental models are common, especially with designs that try something new.

8. Cognitive Psychology for UX: The Principle of Least Effort | Spencer Lanoue Read more 👉

Our brains are sophisticated machines. They’re capable of processing complex patterns, and they regulate every aspect of our very existence. But even though we have intricate minds, we don’t want to think too hard — or too much — if we don’t have to. Even though we have intricate minds, we don’t want to think too hard — or too much — if we don’t have to.

9. Designing for Human Attention | Martin Jancik Read more 👉

I have always been fascinated by the way the human mind works. I am also convinced that being familiar with cognitive sciences is one of the key skills of any designer. To better myself professionally and perhaps to help other people learn something new, I decided to write about the cognitive topics I am interested in.

10. Predicting Human Behavior: The Missing Third | Charles Chu Read more 👉

If I ever make a list of the most important things to learn, I’d put “human behaviour” very, very close to the top. Others have made such lists. Yet, despite leaps in our scientific understanding of human behaviour, the tools many of us “ordinary” folk use in business, politics, and everyday life remain shockingly primitive.

Thanks for reading. 🙏