The Design Psychologist | Psychology for UX, Product, Service, Instructional, Interior, and Game Designers

 Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.  What happens when human-centered design is no longer enough? Designers are trained to make things easier to use—but what if ease and elegance are no longer the point? What if the systems we need to change go far beyond screens and interfaces, touching...

 Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.  Why does social proof work? And, what are some practical tips on how to use it to create better designs? In part one of these Social Proof episodes, we started with the foundations of social psychology. We looked at the history, key studies, and some...

Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.   Have you ever been in a crowd where no one clapped until one brave soul started the applause? Or walked past two restaurants—one bustling with a line out the door, the other nearly empty—and felt pulled toward the busy one? These small, everyday momen...

Get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn:   thedesignpsychologist.substack.com Why do so many user personas fail in practice, and what can we do about it? Have you ever worked on a team where everyone had a different idea of who the user was? Or watched a beautifully crafted persona become ignored or misused? You're not alone. In th...

Why are games so deeply engaging? What psychological principles make game design such a powerful tool for shaping attention, emotion, and learning? Game design is not a niche skill. It's one of the most refined disciplines we have for designing attention, emotion, and motivation. If you're designing anything for people, game design can sharpen your craft.  This episode reveals how the cr...

What is the sweet spot between new and familiar, and how do you design for it? Create products that feel groundbreaking and instantly intuitive by applying the psychology of the MAYA Principle. By unpacking how humans respond to familiarity and novelty, you’ll gain practical guidance for designing experiences that spark excitement without overwhelming users. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE What is t...

What’s the real impact of service design on customer experiences? In this episode of The Design Psychologist, host Thomas talks with service design expert Marc Stickdorn, PhD, author of "This is Service Design Doing," about the evolution and holistic nature of service design.  They discuss the importance of community involvement and collaboration in shaping effective strategies and enhan...

What shapes the memory of an experience, and how can designers use that insight to create better, more human-centered products? Design more memorable and emotionally resonant experiences by understanding how people actually remember what they go through. It turns out we do not remember experiences by their length, but by their intensity and how they end. By uncovering the psychological principle k...

What’s the best way to choose how you’ll teach something so it actually sticks? Design your next lesson so learners don’t just follow along—they understand, remember, and apply their new skills. By grounding your instruction in Cognitive Load Theory, you’ll gain a practical compass for sequencing content, trimming unnecessary load, and accelerating real mastery. Our guest, Dr. John Sweller, pionee...

Have you ever noticed how an unfinished task — or a cliffhanger at the end of a show — keeps tugging at your attention? How can the Zeigarnik effect’s lingering cognitive tension help us design products, services, and experiences that people actually come back to and complete? When you learn to harness the motivational pull of “unfinished business,” you can turn mundane flows into engaging journey...

Why is it so hard to change behavior—even when people already know exactly what to do? Design your next learning experience so people don’t just understand what to do— they actually do it. By uncovering the psychology behind the knowing–doing gap, you’ll gain practical tools to move your audience from passive understanding to sustained action. Our guest, Julie Dirksen, has spent two decades helpin...

In this episode, we uncover how the order in which information is presented affects what users remember—and what they forget. From the “primacy effect” that gives early items a cognitive boost, to the “recency effect” that gives the last ones staying power, you'll learn how sequence can make or break a design. We explore: Why we remember the first and last items in a list better than the midd...

Why is it so hard to know whether people want to use what we design—not just whether they can ? Design research can (and should) go far beyond basic task success. Our guest Bill Albert joins us to show how to expand our measurement toolbox. By learning to measure desirability, emotion, and true engagement, we unlock clearer insights, align teams faster, and invest only in ideas that will actually...

What happens when your design asks users to make too many choices? In this solo episode, we explore a deceptively simple principle with massive implications for user experience: Hick’s Law. This law explains why more options mean more decision time—and why that’s not always a good thing. From cluttered navigation to bloated dropdowns, we’ll break down how cognitive overload quietly slows users dow...

Explaining an abstract idea can feel easy—until you put pen to paper. In this episode, our host sits down with Stephen P. Anderson to unpack the craft of turning complex concepts into clear, memorable visuals. Together they dig into the challenges of sketching an org chart, mapping a process, or nailing a scientific metaphor—and ask what really separates a helpful illustration from a confusing one...

How much can you trust what users tell you? In this solo episode, we dive into one of the most slippery yet essential tools in UX research: self-reporting. From interviews to surveys, self-reports are everywhere—but they come with hidden psychological traps. We explore: Why self-reported data can be both useful and misleading The psychological reasons people often misrepresent their own behavior W...

Ever wonder how certain products feel inevitable the moment they appear—rearranging entire markets overnight? In this episode of The Design Psychologist , Thomas sits down with UX pioneer Larry Marine to unpack the mechanics of truly disruptive research—the kind that yields insights so fundamental they can’t be unseen. Most teams unknowingly skip a handful of critical research steps, blinding them...

How many participants do you need to test in order to make valid research claims? In this episode, we dive deep into the science and psychology behind sample sizes in user testing. Whether you're working with five users or five hundred, the number you choose can shape the story your research tells—and how credible your findings appear to stakeholders. Why sample size is one of the most misund...

In this episode of The Design Psychologist , we dive deep into the world of qualitative research and human-centered design with legendary UX thinker Indi Young.  If you've ever felt like your user interviews only skim the surface—or if you've relied too heavily on personas—you might be missing the most powerful insights. Indi joins us to explore how deep, non-judgmental listening can rev...

Why do some products feel natural the moment you touch them—while others are baffling from the start?  In this episode, we explore the psychology of affordances —those subtle cues that tell us what to do next, without saying a word. From door handles to digital apps, we break down how great design speaks directly to human intuition. You’ll learn: The psychological principles that make interfaces f...

In this episode, Thomas interviews Dr. Chris Wickens, a pioneer in cognitive engineering and human factors, and they discuss how designers can reduce errors and enhance decision-making when lives are on the line. They delve into the high-stakes world of design psychology for critical environments—think operating rooms, airplane cockpits, and military control systems.  Together, they explore the re...

How do you figure out what features to build into your design? How do you get those magical insights that actually improve your product—versus just shifting things around? In this episode, we unpack one key distinction that helps design psychologists and UX researchers choose the right method at the right time: inductive vs. deductive research . Imagine you have two different ideas for how to desi...

Imagine dragging a jammed suitcase through a crowded airport—frustrating, right? Now imagine that same experience happening in your app, your website, or your product design. That’s performance load: the hidden mental and physical effort users endure when your design isn’t working for them. In this episode, we take our first step into the world of design psychology by exploring the concept of perf...

Today on The Design Psychologist , we're diving deep into the intersection of psychology and design with none other than Susan Weinschenk, PhD —the person you’ll literally find next to the term “design psychologist” in the dictionary.  Susan is a pioneer in applying behavioral science to UX and product design, and the author of essential books like How to Get People to Do Stuff and 100 Things...

What does the color of your brand really say about your business? Is there truth behind the popular color psychology charts? In this episode, we cut through the noise and explore the actual science behind color psychology—what it tells us, what it doesn't , and what that means for your branding decisions. We’ll explore: Why some color associations (like “blue = trust”) persist—and whether the...