Book review: 100 things every designer needs to know about people
100 things every designer needs to know about people is the first UX book I’ve ever read. I have got this awesome fountain of knowledge on my first weekend with UX Well in Brno. We are supposed to get about nine books to read and 100 things every designer needs to know about people is first one. Need to say that it’s definitely worth the reading since it provides a wide range of information.
The book is wrote by behavioural scientist Susan Weinschenk who made also a sequel 100 more things and Neuro Web Design: What makes them click.
Like many of these expert publications also 100 things is not designed to be read continuously. Facts are served in very modest fashion and every two or three pages a new chapter starts. This is why you can read it very smoothly and memorize the main points of each of the topics. Also Ms. Weinschenk helps with fast reading by providing really useful summaries in the end of chapters.
No new informations are there, but from optical illusions and brief introduction to the psychology and user behaviour I’ve got to the specific examples of websites with an extraordinary explanation. And this is the most important skill of Susan Weinschenk.
How people see
The very first chapter is dedicated to overview people's vision. The most interesting fact for me was a study about how people can recognize enviroment by their central and peripheral vision differently. You can read the study named The contributions of central versus peripheral vision to scene gist recognition or watch a 6 minutes youtube video Journal of Vision: Central versus peripheral vision in scene gist recognition by both authors themselves.
I wonder if this study confirms using full-background images on websites. Actually I was thinking about this topic through several chapters. In times when websites have more visitors from small devices, full-background image might be a thing of the past and simply a waste of space.
How people read
Right after reading the chapter How people read I have showed it to my colleague Leandro because I was amazed by this beautiful paradox:
People read faster longer line length, but they prefer short line length.
How people think
People process information best in story form. This is a very nice statement and the author is not using this principle in this book so often as I thought she would. Anyway I was caught in the flow state and I’ve read this book in few days during lunch brakes.
I mention the flow state in purpose to show you my favourite topic in this chapter named People can be in flow state where I found practical information that can be applied right away in every long form. In the flow state people need a constant stream of information coming in to give you feedback as people perform continous tasks.
What motivates people
Certainly small bits of informations quickly reward people by learning new stuff. Even small signs of progress can have a big effect. Motivation by progress, mastery and control is a principle you can put into every design easily.
My boss Antongiulio in Tribal Worldwide told me this quotation from the most recent Awwwards event in Amsterdam:
Design has to make people feel like having superpowers.
I do not know who said that but you can find similarity. And obviously I like the usage of word superhero. I think the point of the quote is to make design so easy to use that every interaction appears in the right time and the right form to enable user complete tasks quickly without any unnecessary thinking.
People are social animals
I’m not into social networks at all. Not that I do not use them, but this theme is far away of my expertise and experiences. However Ms. Weinschenk made few good points there I liked.
Biggest one wasn’t surprisingly connected to social networks but to some basic social rules. I had to mark the whole paragraph because I was amazed by this metaphor:
If the Web site is not responsive or takes too long to load, it’s like the person you’re speaking to is not looking at you, or is ignoring other person getting too personal. If the Web site does not save your information from session to session, that’s like the other person is not recognizing you or remembering that you know each other.
Maybe I would just make an adjustment in the very last sentence: “…like other person is not remembering what you told them last time.”
Conclusion
Full of facts and examples. Unlike many other books, this one is loaded by references to many sources and studies. This is why I believe it will be my daily friend for creating presentations for clients. There is nothing new but still it is a fountain of knowledge to me.
