Designs becomes more meaningful when we understand the people who use them. Studying sociocultural influences and the psychological fields of cognition, motivation, emotion, and more help us better identify, define, and frame the UX problems and craft better, more effective experiences delivered by our products and services.

2. UX Thinking | DaveHogue.com
2

3. What If…

8. 10,000
years

9. Gobekli Tepe
10,000 B.C.E.

11. Heiroglyphics
1500 B.C.E.

12. The Rosetta Stone
196 B.C.E

13. signs
words
icons

15. KEEP OUT
OR DIE

17. How do we
make certain
they understand?
Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (Sandia National Laboratories, 1993)

18. We must
understand
them.

19. Why do some
experiences succeed?

23. We feel like they know us
personally.

24. The designers
understand
the users.

25. “You are not designing for yourself.”

26. But we’re all human.

27. Users
Developers
Researchers
Designers
Managers

28. Our brains all work the
same way…

29. …and we share the same
capabilities and limitations.
We are subject to the
same rules.

30. Understanding how we all think
can help us generate
better ideas…

31. …and help us craft and deliver
better
experiences.

32. Design is not magic.

33. A System
for thinking about design with a
psychological perspective.

36. People using things in places.

37. Context
Who are the people?
Demographics, experiences, skills, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge
Where are they?
Place, environment, situation, conditions, circumstances
What are the devices, objects, and tools they are using?
Phones, tablets, computers, kiosks, cameras, pen & paper, chisel & stone…

38. Design must work across cultures,
languages, and generations.

39. Symbols
Much of our design is symbolic:
Colors
Words
Numbers
Typefaces
Icons
Graphics
Illustrations
Diagrams
Charts
Photographs
Motion
Video
Animation
Sounds
Haptics
The meaning of symbols is derived from
our experiences in that time and place.

40. Color of Mourning
South Africa
Egypt and Burma
Korea, Mexico, and Iran
Thailand and Brazil
China
India
United States and Europe

41. Wisdom
Harbinger of Death

42. Trends & Fads
Style is social
and varies over time,
but the pendulum swings
in both directions.

43. What something means
to me here today
may be different
from what it means
to someone else
in a different time and place.

46. Where am I going?
How will I get there?

47. Goals
What are the objectives?
What is the desired outcome, and is it:
Productive, focused, goal-directed, playful, exploratory, meandering
What is the value of the goals and objectives?
Important, essential, necessary, optional, nice-to-have, elective
How urgent are the goals and objectives?
Time-sensitive, critical, compelling, casual, open-ended

48. Trust?

49. Credible?

50. Even minor issues
with design quality
can reduce
credibility and trust.

52. Perception
How do people sense and perceive the world?
Vision, audition, and touch
Color deficient vision
Image recognition
Motion
Gestalt Principles
Pre-conscious processing and attention

54. Color Deficient Vision
About 8% of men and 0.5% of women in the USA have some
form of color deficient vision.
Normal
Red-Green
Blue-Yellow

55. Choosing Colors
Some tips for being color friendly:
1. Do not use color alone to signify meaning –
combine it with form and text to provide
additional cues.
2. Use sufficient contrast – test your design by
de-saturating the colors to see if they are still
distinct.
3. Remember that the color pairs that cause
difficulty are RED-GREEN and BLUE-YELLOW.
Shift the hue and vary the luminosity.

56. Form & Structure
Gestalt Principles
Figure-Ground
Proximity
Similarity
Closure
Continuity
Symmetry
Common Fate

57. Figure-Ground

58. Closure

59. Proximity

60. Similarity

62. Symmetry

63. Continuity

65. We perceive what we expect.

67. Motivation
Definition:
The force that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior.
Why we do what we do.
Theories:
Achievement, Affiliation, and Power
Existence, Relatedness, and Growth (ERG)
Biological Drives
Internal vs. External
Not Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…

69. Motivation
Why do people spend so much time on social
networks, and what do they get from it?
Affiliation with others (we are social creatures and seek contact)
Personal achievement (competition with self and others)
Social influence and credibility (“social currency”)

71. Cognition
Definition:
The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thinking, experience, and the senses.
Types:
Learning and Memory
Creativity
Language
Problem-solving
Reasoning and logic
Attention
Decision-making
Recognition
Spatial operations
Concept formation
Metacognition
And many, many biases…

72. Information Design
People are better able to scan and read text when it is
presented in ways which help them identify and understand
the meaning through the use of:
Headers and subheaders (size)
Weight
Lineheight (leading)
Line length (measure)
Bullet lists
Whitespace
Graphics, diagrams, and illustrations

73. Making Meaning
The Dead Zone: An outbreak of green algae, or hutai as the
Chinese call it, has invaded the seawaters off eastern
Shandong. It looks harmless and lots of fun, as beachgoers are
pictured frolicking in the green mass. But danger lurks below
with the algae posing a massive threat to aquatic life. The rivers
are contaminated due to the use of fertilizers in agriculture and
chemical discharges from industrial plants. Untreated sewage,
along with the discharge of nitrate and phosphate from nearby
industrial plants are spewed into the Yellow Sea, which
stimulate the growth of algae, phytoplankton, and other marine
micro-organisms. In July 2008 an algae bloom covered 13,000
square kilometers, then in July 2013 the largest algae bloom
ever covered 28,900 square kilometers. The bacteria consume
dead algae and phytoplankton, taking in tons of oxygen from
the water during digestion. That results in sudden depletion of
oxygen, which causes a huge impact on marine life by causing
hypoxia – the marine organisms literally suffocate. Most mobile,
adult fish may survive by swimming away from the hypoxic
zones. However, they may be forced into smaller habitats when
schools become overcrowded. Seafloor dwellers like
tubeworms may be more tolerant of low oxygen levels, but
young fish and other less mobile creatures like clams may
suffer and eventually die if the water remains hypoxic for a long
time.
The Dead Zone
An outbreak of green algae, or hutai as the Chinese call it, has invaded
the seawaters off eastern Shandong. It looks harmless and lots of fun,
as beachgoers are pictured frolicking in the green mass. But danger
lurks below with the algae posing a massive threat to aquatic life.
The rivers and Yellow Sea are contaminated by:
• Agricultural fertilizers,
• Nitrate and phosphate discharge from industrial plants,
• Untreated sewage.
These contaminants stimulate the growth of algae, phytoplankton, and
other marine micro-organisms. Bacteria consume dead algae and
phytoplankton and use tons of oxygen from the water during digestion.
Hypoxia: Suffocation due to lack of oxygen caused by the
removal of oxygen from the water by excess micro-organisms.
Most mobile, adult fish may survive by swimming away from the
hypoxic zones. However, they may be forced into smaller habitats
when schools become overcrowded.
Seafloor dwellers like tubeworms may be more tolerant of low oxygen
levels, but young fish and other less mobile creatures like clams may
suffer and eventually die if the water remains hypoxic for a long time.

74. Making Meaning
The Dead Zone: An outbreak of green algae, or hutai as the
Chinese call it, has invaded the seawaters off eastern
Shandong. It looks harmless and lots of fun, as beachgoers are
pictured frolicking in the green mass. But danger lurks below
with the algae posing a massive threat to aquatic life. The rivers
are contaminated due to the use of fertilizers in agriculture and
chemical discharges from industrial plants. Untreated sewage,
along with the discharge of nitrate and phosphate from nearby
industrial plants are spewed into the Yellow Sea, which
stimulate the growth of algae, phytoplankton, and other marine
micro-organisms. In July 2008 an algae bloom covered 13,000
square kilometers, then in July 2013 the largest algae bloom
ever covered 28,900 square kilometers. The bacteria consume
dead algae and phytoplankton, taking in tons of oxygen from
the water during digestion. That results in sudden depletion of
oxygen, which causes a huge impact on marine life by causing
hypoxia – the marine organisms literally suffocate. Most mobile,
adult fish may survive by swimming away from the hypoxic
zones. However, they may be forced into smaller habitats when
schools become overcrowded. Seafloor dwellers like
tubeworms may be more tolerant of low oxygen levels, but
young fish and other less mobile creatures like clams may
suffer and eventually die if the water remains hypoxic for a long
time.

75. Cognitive Biases
Our cognitive abilities are fallible.
 Availability Heuristic
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 Confirmation Bias
 Loss Aversion
 Hyperbolic Discounting
 Recency Bias
 And dozens more…

76. Should we “Reduce deaths”…
…or “Maximize quality of life?”

77. Framing Bias

78. What did the first cars look like?
Horse-drawn carriages.

79. Anchoring Bias

80. We may not be
designing for
ourselves, but…

81. We are susceptible to the same biases.

82. Creativity
Perhaps one of the most difficult
abilities to define and measure,
creativity is often assigned to
designers, but everyone has it.

83. Divergent Thinking
Thinking that moves in diverging
directions to involve a variety of
factors and perspectives.
It generates many possibilities
which may lead to novel ideas
and solutions.
It is associated with creativity.

84. 30 seconds…
How many uses?

86. Emotion
Definition:
A complex, subjective experience resulting in physiological and
psychological changes that influence thought and behavior.
Theories:
Ekman (Happiness, Surprise, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust)
James-Lange (physiological reaction precedes emotion)
Cannon-Bard (physiological reaction and emotion are concurrent)
Schachter-Singer (physiological reaction precedes cognition)
Lazarus (cognition precedes physiological reaction and emotion)

87. Color
Different colors have different
meanings and elicit different
emotions.
Red is anger.
Green is envy.
Blue is sadness.
Yellow is cowardice.

88. Typefaces
Different typefaces convey
different feelings and attitudes.
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/07/05/psychology-of-fonts-infographic/

90. Emotion
Emotions may be positive (love, joy) or
negative (anger, fear.)
We have about 20,000 emotional
experiences per day (Kahneman, 2002.)
Attractive things are judged to work
better and be more effective.

91. Positive Emotions
Fredrickson (2009) discovered that
we need three positive emotions to
lift us up and overcome just one
negative emotion.
Have you ever said,
“Meh. It could be better, but it works”?
Is the rest of the interface
three times better
to make up for it?

93. Behavior
Definition:
The actions by which an organism reacts and adjusts to
their environment and other organisms; a response to various stimuli.
Theories:
Classical Conditioning (association)
Operant Conditioning (reinforcement and punishment)
Social Learning Theory (live, verbal, and symbolic)
Relational Frame Theory (language and cognition)
Drive Reduction (biology and homeostasis)

94. Rewards
Participation in social services is
often encouraged with rewards
such as badges and points that
have personal and social value
and which are delivered through
complex reinforcement
schedules.

100. Not what she predicted…

102. After editing the gift
message three times, it
was still too long…
How long is it now?
How much too long is it?
What is the maximum
number of characters?
HELP! What should I do?

108. Learning to use this...

109. …does not help with these.

110. Quick Review
A lot of psychology in just two diagrams!

113. Thanks!
I’m happy to answer your questions.