1. People Don’t Want to Work or Think More Than They Have To
2. People Have Limitations &
3. To Err is Human
4. Human Memory Is Complicated
5. People are Social
6. Attention
7. People Crave Information
A chemical in our brain calledDopamine is released as a reward when we learn something new. By nature, it makes us want to learn more information all the time
People like being in control of their decisions. When they have an excess of information, they think they have more options to choose from
When a person does something, they need some sort of feedback from their action. If a page is loading, they need to know that it is loading.
8. Unconscious Processing
Most of the decisions we make happen unconsciously
If you can make people sign up to your site for free, they are more likely to do something bigger for you, like upgrading the account to a paid one.
The old brain (the brainstem and cerebellum) are involved in the processing of emotion, behavior, attention, walking, eating, sexual activity, sleeping and a few other motor responses. This is why messages like food, sex and hunger grab our attention
The emotional brain is affected by pictures that tells us stories of humans. It has a huge impact on the decisions we make
People react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented (called framing)
9. People Create Mental Models
People have for generations observed others to create mental models for themselves for example, we know how to use the remote from observing others use it
The mental model that people have about a particular task may make it easy or hard to use an interface that you have designed.
If you want to give the user a great UX, you have to either make use of their mental model while completing tasks or you have find a clever way of changing the way they do things
Metaphors help users get a mental model. For example if we say, ‘the kindle is just like reading a book’, the users will immediately have a mental model ready for themselves while using the kindle
It is very important to do proper user research so that you can find out their mental models
10. Visual System
If the information on the page is too cluttered, users cannot find it. Use grouping to help the user focus
Things that are close to each other are, are considered to have similar functionalities
Decorative fonts do not help the users read. Use large and clear fonts where necessary
Try to avoid red and blue combination as they are the hardest to look at
People can recognize objects on a screen best when they are slightly angled and have the perspective of being slightly above
Color can be used to show whether things go together. But make sure you have an alternate way to show the same information since some people are colorblind.