100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People book club questions

1. 1.

   Weinschenk argues designers should base decisions on psychology research rather than intuition. Where have you seen intuitive design decisions conflict with what research would predict?

2. 2.

   The working memory chapter limits the number of things a person can hold in mind to about four. How does that change how you think about navigation, onboarding, or form design?

3. 3.

   Pre-attentive attributes — motion, color, size — capture attention before conscious choice. What is the ethical implication of deliberately using these to drive user behavior?

4. 4.

   The Gestalt principles describe how the visual system groups elements automatically. Has understanding the neural basis changed how you apply them compared to learning them as style rules?

5. 5.

   She argues people scan rather than read most online content. Does your own experience match this? What conditions make you actually read instead of scan?

6. 6.

   The book covers 100 findings at a very high level. What's the risk of compressing complex psychological research into one-page design tips?

7. 7.

   Memory is reconstructive — users misremember interfaces. What are the implications for usability testing, where you ask people what they remember doing?

8. 8.

   How does the emotion chapter change the goal of design? If emotional response shapes cognition, is 'clear communication' an insufficient goal?

9. 9.

   Social proof influences behavior reliably. Where in products you use is this mechanism most visible? How do you feel about it when you notice it?

10. 10.

    Which of the 100 entries has most directly changed how you approach a specific design decision?

11. 11.

    The book was published in 2011. Which findings feel most dated, and which seem to have held up best in the subsequent decade of research?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.