"Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so well-written, researched, and designed that I just can’t put it down. That’s how good 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is! What makes it so good is that it’s broken down into short segments of a page or two that cover how people read, see, feel, remember, think, and focus their attention, among other interesting topics. Each segment has a “takeaways” section that neatly sums up the contents and emphasizes the relationship to design. In effect, the book’s layout and design mimic the way in which humans process information—very clever indeed.
Susan Weinschenk, who holds a PhD in Psychology and an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Wisconsin, uses her passion for research to educate designers about the psychological and physiological factors that affect our perceptions, motivations, and decision making. The book reminds me of the big book series on psychology, sociology, and philosophy, where theories and movements are clearly presented in small chunks of information, something that Weinschenk advises in her section on attention theory.
The first half of the book is focused mainly on visual communication and design, whereas the latter half delves rather deeply into the psychology of emotion and motivation. This content arrangement makes it easy for designers to quickly pick out the most salient parts of the book. However, I recommend reading it in its entirety for anyone who wants to create user friendly print and online documents or websites.
In fact, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People could easily be indexed under psychology or physiology as well as design or user experience as the scope of her research is impressive. She draws upon the areas of cognitive psychology, eye tracking, and visual communication to explore with the reader how the brain works, what our motivations are when viewing objects, and how we make mistakes. Her “takeaway” tips alone represent a potent set of crib notes on how to take advantage of, or even manipulate, our imperfect biological/psychological makeup.
When I’m asked by students or colleagues in education and industry what’s the one book I could suggest to help them with their efforts to produce effective visual media, I would, without hesitation, recommend this book. I’d put a copy of 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People in their hands with the complete confidence that it will, in a most enjoyable and approachable manner, open a larger understanding of how to appeal to their very human audience."
– Lynne Cooke, Clinical Assistant Professor, Arizona State
University
Originally published in Technical Communication l Volume 68, Number 2, May 2021