Psychological principles as they relate to user interface and user experience design.
6
votes
4answers
1k views
What are some examples of famous/effective skeuomorph UIs? [closed]
A skeuomorph user interface draws upon real world objects in its visual design in order to increase familiarity and the association between the product and its real world counterpart. Apple has been ...
19
votes
5answers
434 views
What makes people vote?
What drives people to upvote or downvote content? I'm looking for the je-ne-sais-quoi quality on successful voting systems and I just can't put my finger on. Let's look at three examples:
...
2
votes
4answers
214 views
How to deal with different screen sizes when your theme is all about design
We know that not all people have the same screen resolution in their computer monitor. Some people prefer widescreen display in 15'', when other uses 17'' and more for their computer experience.
I am ...
5
votes
3answers
506 views
What examples are there of Operant Conditioning in UI? [closed]
Like many cars, my car makes an annoying beep when you start the car with your seatbelt unbuckled; plugging in the seatbelt immediately ends the noise. I used to find this annoying, but I eventually ...
33
votes
5answers
1k views
What research is there suggesting modal dialogs are disruptive?
It seems "Everyone" knows they're highly disruptive for many situations but often times clients don't. Particularly in desktop applications this form of dialog is often misused, often disrupting a ...
16
votes
7answers
2k views
The psychology of everyday shapes
We know a lot about colours and how they affect people, but what do we know about shapes? When choosing icons or logos, how do the shapes in them affect their perception?
Does anyone know of any ...
256
votes
22answers
11k views
Why do people clear the screen multiple times when using a calculator?
I've noticed that most people when using a real or a virtual calculator, they hit the Clear button multiple times when clearing the screen (even though hitting it once is enough), so I started ...
4
votes
3answers
315 views
How does a “visitor counter” on a web site affect user experience?
Many amateur sites have a "You are visitor number X" counters on them. What effect does this button have on visitors to the site? Does it increase their trust in the site?
17
votes
2answers
294 views
Social media sharing: Does simply showing icons stimulate action?
This is tangentially related to the question "Social Media Icons - show all visible, or group under 'share'?".
In my organization, we've generally found that displaying the individual icons for ...
3
votes
8answers
342 views
What motivates people to keep on sharing ideas, develop new concepts and innovate on online innovation communities? [closed]
I'm very interested in crowd-sourcing and online innovation communities. Currently, I'm conducting research on what motivates users to continue sharing ideas, developing concepts, funding projects and ...
8
votes
3answers
257 views
Should we call our achievement system something else?
The company I work for has two public sites; one is just our main WWW site and the other is a site dedicated to our members. I'm a developer there and I'm working on an achievement system for our ...
6
votes
2answers
208 views
How can I encourage users to authenticate?
I am working on a post-sale customer support project for a US high street retailer (for the rest of this post I will refer to them as 'Jon's Cellphones'). The program will enable customers who ...
2
votes
1answer
120 views
How important it is to consider the background of audience while designing a web GUI?
While we have to develop web applications for general public, sometimes it happens that we have to target a specific type of audience. I'll use a theoretical use case to elaborate my question:
A ...
6
votes
3answers
177 views
What kinds of personality archetypes are taken into account when designing an application?
If somebody were to look out on the landscape of applications available, the amount of options is staggering. However, it's pretty easy to see that two applications that have the same basic functions ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
Mental model vs Conceptual model — what's the difference?
I'm reading Apple's Human Interface Guidelines about Mental models and I can't understand what is the difference between Mental and Conceptual models.
I prefer a short answer if possible :)
4
votes
4answers
277 views
How to prevent grey/black lines after effect?
I have made some new design for my private blog (a black design).
However, If I now read a blog piece and then look around I see around me all kinds of black/grey horizontals bars as after effect, ...
2
votes
1answer
842 views
Why is SunBurst background so popular and are there any other ones?
I keep seeing SunBurst Background Pattern for years, literally! and it is still trendy. Why is it still so? Do we lack creativity for similar generic (or focus drawing) background patterns or human ...
17
votes
8answers
3k views
Which Cognitive Psychology books would you recommend? [closed]
I'd like to start reading about Cognitive Psychology, but don't know where to start really. I'd rather read a book that teaches me something that I could use when working on the web/mobile ...
11
votes
3answers
548 views
UX and design for Gamification of Collaborative Learning
What are proven gamification techniques that promote collaboration? I don't mind whether the specific techniques come from educational sites, or pure game sites or some other source. I want to ...
3
votes
3answers
252 views
How much time is lost by waiting for GUI?
After asking the question Will faster GUI always make one more efficient?, I understood that there is a lower limit to the amount of time lost due to the GUI not responding. My interpretation of the ...
20
votes
5answers
581 views
Will faster GUI always make one more efficient?
Are there any studies on whether one will actually get more done during a days work if delays went down i. e. from 10 ms to 5 ms for each update. My point is that if we are already working at the ...
25
votes
10answers
1k views
When you hate your design and you're almost finished with it, what do you do?
I started out with a web design template that I loved. I spent a few days finding, cropping, and touching up the perfect images. I tweaked the CSS to better fit my page's style. In short-- I was in ...
8
votes
4answers
409 views
Resources for learning Gestalt principles
I've seen the Gestalt principles or laws referenced often when it comes to graphic design and even UI and UX.
Is there some definitive guide, book or original research about this subject that I can ...
10
votes
9answers
482 views
Do users like choice? How much should I give them?
I built a photo slideshow web page as an exercise for myself.
One thing I found myself doing was adding a Settings button. Clicking this reveals a little settings pane that lets a user choose between ...
7
votes
4answers
609 views
How many objects/things can the average person compare at once?
I recall reading that the average person can only effectively compare 7 things at once. Has anyone heard of this and can reference any studies/research done on object comparison?
To give you some ...
47
votes
10answers
2k views
How does Gamification change User Behavior?
On Location Based Applications the use of Gamification is essential. As you move along and check in you earn badges and points. Users also find themselves in a leader board, which most certainly ...
8
votes
1answer
300 views
What is wrong with putting price timeline in e-commerce sites?
Why don't e-commerce sites, e.g. amazon, include price timeline charts for their products so that users will be persuaded on the discounts?
Does it incur any culprits for usability or even for sales? ...
9
votes
6answers
352 views
Which is more motivating to continue a process until completion: a percentage, or the number of steps?
I'm working on a set of guides to help users learn how to use our app. We want to show which guides are available and some data with each guide indicating how far you've gotten. The idea is that if we ...
6
votes
8answers
300 views
What's the difference between what's best for the user and that what the user is used to?
See title, this needs to be at least 15 characters
11
votes
3answers
629 views
How do you calculate the cognitive memory load requirements of an interface?
If you break an interface down into elements and possible actions, how do you calculate the memory load requirements of an interface? Further, how do you relate the existing familiarity of an element ...
14
votes
4answers
399 views
Discovering new features
I work with a web-based platform with lots of data and various tools to view the data, perform analysis. Users are often impressed by one or two features and stick with them. The platform adds new ...
24
votes
2answers
1k views
What objective qualities make a user interface intuitive?
How is intuitive defined in terms of UI? Are there any studies about what objective and measurable qualities make a user interface intuitive? What design principles, patterns, or approaches are most ...
10
votes
4answers
599 views
Should I use user-generated Badges to reward users?
I am thinking about using badges in a system to reward users. In the scenario I'm thinking of, users would be rewarded for posting content that is appreciated/ranked high by other users.
I am ...
18
votes
8answers
546 views
How valuable is studying cognitive psychology for UX?
I am starting my second year in grad school and thinking about what to study. One thing that I know is good to have a grasp of is cognitive psychology. But I would like to get someones perspective.
...
25
votes
6answers
364 views
What are your favorite counter-intuitive principles or ideas within UX? [closed]
A quick example:
"Paradox of Choice" - Giving a user more control via options, configuration, and settings is counter-intuitive from a UX standpoint. We expect users will relish their total ...
10
votes
5answers
632 views
How do you observe body language and facial expressions in user testing?
When user testing how do you record positive or negative body language? Do you use observed shifts in body language or facial expressions to consciously probe further about what the user thinks or ...
14
votes
6answers
364 views
Correct terminology for “please the interviewer” bias?
I'm pushing usability testing within my workplace by performing some Steve Krug style usability tests, which have gone down so well that the product owner now wants me to add some marketing questions.
...
31
votes
13answers
8k views
Is it true that “the only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple”?
Everyone knows the famous quote (by Bruce Ediger or Steve Jobs, I'm not sure):
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned.
It's an amusing gem, but is it really ...
