A great little resource. Buster Benson has organised the cognitive biases list to make it much easier to use.
Definition of a cognitive bias:
Cognitive biases are tendencies to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgment, and are often studied in psychology and behavioral economics.
Brain images are believed to have a particularly persuasive influence on the public perception of research on cognition. Three experiments are reported showing that presenting brain images with articles summarizing cognitive neuroscience research resulted in higher ratings of scientific reasoning for arguments made in those articles, as compared to articles accompanied by bar graphs, a topographical map of brain activation, or no image.
Scary stuff, are we really that gullible?
Original study: Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images
A graph showing the time of the day (bottom) against the likelihood of parole being given by a judge. It’s quite telling and it’s really easy to spot lunch.
Time to design an adaptive interface that is easier to use just before lunch…
Composers, novelists and film directors try to end on a high. Restaurants keen to manipulate their online reviews have found a similar trick.
Source: Tim Harford — Article — How the sense of an ending shapes memory
A great piece on ethics, psychology and digital design.
I’m an expert on how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities. That’s why I spent the last three years as Google’s Design Ethicist caring about how to design things in a way that defends a billion people’s minds from getting hijacked.
Source: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist — Medium
Jon Hensley looks at real-world examples to illustrate psychology principles in use so that you can begin to use them in your own designs.
Source: Improve Your Designs With The Principles Of Similarity And Proximity (Part 1) – Smashing Magazine
The psychology of menu design is the psychology of design and best of all the restaurant environment is pretty controlled so we can measure the results. Here’s some more psychology based design tips from menu design.
A good, in-depth look at the psychology of reading
E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages
Source: The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens – Scientific American
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About / contact Joe Leech
@mrjoe on Twitter
Resources
Learn psychology theory and how to apply it to design and user experience. Psychology for Design and UX the Workshop
