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What it argues
Susan Weinschenk is a behavioral scientist and UX consultant, and this book is her translation of cognitive science research into practical guidance for designers. The premise is direct: people behave in predictable ways because of how their perceptual and cognitive systems work, and designers who understand those systems make better decisions than designers who work from intuition alone. Each of the 100 entries is short — one to four pages — covering a specific finding from psychology or neuroscience with a "What to do with this information" section attached.
The topics are organized into thematic chapters: how people see, how people read, how people remember, how people think, how people focus, how people feel, how people decide, how people make mistakes, and how people behave socially. The coverage is broad enough to touch most areas that matter to visual and interaction designers, from the mechanics of pre-attentive processing (why certain visual attributes grab attention before conscious thought) to the cognitive load effects of different navigation architectures to the emotional influence of color and sound.
What it gets right
- 1.
Pre-attentive processing means certain visual attributes — color, motion, size, orientation — are detected by the visual system before conscious attention. Design can use these to guide attention reliably.
- 2.
Working memory holds about four items, not seven as older models claimed. Good design reduces cognitive load by chunking, using progressive disclosure, and not asking the user to hold many things simultaneously.
- 3.
The Gestalt principles — proximity, similarity, closure, continuity — describe how the visual cortex automatically groups elements. They are perceptual facts, not style conventions.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Susan Weinschenk is a behavioral scientist and UX researcher with a PhD in psychology from Brandeis University. She has consulted with technology companies, banks, healthcare providers, and government agencies on applying behavioral science to design and communication. She runs The Team W, a research and consulting firm, and has written several other books including Neuro Web Design and How to Get People to Do Stuff. She is known for making behavioral science research accessible to practitioners who are not academic psychologists.
