100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

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by Susan Weinschenk

We design to elicit responses from people. We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it you'll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that matches the way people think, work, and play.

Learn to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your own design projects by finding the answers to questions such as:

  • What grabs and holds attention on a page or screen?
  • What makes memories stick?
  • What is more important, peripheral or central vision?
  • How can you predict the types of errors that people will make?
  • What is the limit to someone's social circle?
  • How do you motivate people to continue on to (the next step?
  • What line length for text is best?
  • Are some fonts better than others?

These are just a few of the questions that the book answers in its deep-dive exploration of what makes people tick.

Our thoughts on 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

When we design, we solicit responses from people. We want them to do something. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is a solid design-psychology hybrid book that teaches you how to be more effective at guiding these responses.

Tackling some central UX design thinking questions such as "what grabs and holds attention on a page or screen?" and "how do you motivate people to continue on to the next step?", Susan Weinschenk guides you through practical steps to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your UX design.

Like many good UX books, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is not written to be read continuously. Instead, it will prove far more valuable over time as you reference it and build on your foundational knowledge of design thinking and UX design knowledge.

Our favourite quote from 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.

Book Summary

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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 Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People