A Pocket Guide to Psychology for designers by Joe Leech

Author:Joe Leech [Leech, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995465466
Publisher: mrjoe press
Published: 2016-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Psychology books for designers

There are a number of books that focus on the application of psychology in design. The book I return to again and again is Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler. It offers a clear overview of 115 psychological theories and their application within design.

Susan Weinchenk’s 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is another good example of practical application of psychological theory in design.

Mental Notes, a deck of cards by Stephen Anderson, are a great tool for generating design ideas. Each card contains a theory and an example of application. I’ve used them on projects to sprinkle a little something extra on top of a design. For example, one card displays “Recognition over Recall”, and explains that “[i]t’s easier to recognize things we have previously experienced than it is to recall those things from memory.” It’s easier for a site user to answer a question given a set of options to choose from, than if just presented with a blank text area.

Dan Lockton’s Design with Intent toolkit is a set of design patterns including references to the psychological and other theories behind each.

Books are great at giving direction to design through big psychology and for generating ideas, but they can’t help solve specific design problems. For that we need to enter a more academic world.

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