Questions tagged [psychology]
Psychological principles as they relate to user interface and user experience design.
35 questions
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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 ...
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Examples of placebos in UI design?
This is purely a curiosity question but one I thought would be a bit interesting. Is anyone aware of placebos in use on popular web sites or applications? Either intentionally or unintentionally?
...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Ratings: 3 stars vs 5 stars. Why 5?
It's the most common interface used to display votes is the “star rating system,” in which a particular number of points (often expressed as stars) is assigned to an item by each reviewer. We find ...
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The effect of showing "wizard" style steps in a multistep process
I'm approaching this from the context of a user onboarding workflow.
Specifically I'm looking for references to research that discuss what effect displaying "wizard" steps actually has on user ...
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Why are progress bars horizontal?
Question sparked by this discussion.
Why are progress bars almost always presented as horizontal lines that increase from left to right? Is this the best method of indicating progress (and why)? And ...
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How many visually distinct colors can accurately be associated with a separated legend in a figure?
For charts and graphs it's a relatively common question by programmers to want to procedurally generate an arbitrary number of colors that are visually distinct.
Various research (or educated guesses)...
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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 ...
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Why don't users want to see adverts relating to products/services they might be interested in?
As we all know, Google's content display network, as well as many other successful setups rely on delivering targeted adverts to users to increase the chances of adverts falling in front of the ...
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Is there any advantage in marketing my product for £99.99 instead of £100?
It's a wide-spread marketing technique that seems to have been around forever- selling products for £1.99, £9.99, £19.99, instead of £2, £10 and £20.
Presumably the pyschology is that submliminally £...
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Why are nested elements scrolled to the opposite direction?
My question is about scrolling conventions, and spatial scroll conventions in general (even here it's only horizontal, but same applies for vertical scrolling).
Looking at the below mockup, why is it ...
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Getting the real name of an user
Currently, when registering on my site, users are presented with a first name field and a lastname field (plus an email and password field as usual). My reasoning behind this was to encourage users to ...
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How important are avatars/profile images in the context of social feedback?
How important are avatars/profile images in the context of social feedback or inticing behavior as opposed to just the name of a user or an abstract avatar?
Specifically, in the case of consumer ...
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How to encourage honest user behavior in UI
My company creates solutions for waste management facilities. One particular piece of software is used on touch screens at the entrance of a facility. The municipiality runs the facility. We don't ...
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Psychology behind $0.99 for paid apps, but $1.00 for donation apps?
I've noticed a trend (at least on the Google Play store) of application prices ending in x.99, while 'donation' apps usually end on the dollar. I see the reasoning behind the psychology that makes a ...
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Do users trust shortened URLs?
I've got some problems with shortened URLs personally; they're really easy to create and not descriptive, so it's fairly easy to make them link to malware. I'm talking about links like http://bit.ly/...
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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 ...
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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 ...
Kostya
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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 freedom ...
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What is more memorable: Avatar or Username?
Is there any evidence which shows whether users are more able to recognise another user's Photo over their Username or vice versa?
I am interested in understanding this from a usability perspective.
...
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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 ...
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Do shapes connote differing degrees of hazard?
I'm working on designing an icon set and experimenting with a few different styles. One style would involve every icon being the same color. However, color is really good at differentiating things ...
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Why do some apps feel "heavy" while others feel "light"?
I have come up with a new concept and that is that every application or interface has a 'heavyness factor'.
Let me give you an example:
Google chrome feels 'light', it loads fast, doesn't take long ...
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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 ...
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Are stars a good rating system?
Quoting myself from this other question, there are users that rate us with 1 star when the review is "Good product", as well as the other way around, rating us 5 stars for "Bad product" reviews, ...
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Is user centered design only about hygiene factors?
There is one thing that bothers me about UX-design. One of the shortcomings of a user centered design approach, is that it only focuses on existing needs and not on new revolutionary ideas. For ...
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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 :)
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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 ...
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Should we risk using colors other than blue in Web apps?
Trends: New Colors (we’re looking at you, #00A0D1)
If there’s one thing that’s been stagnant in the design community, it’s the originality with colors. Sixty percent of the applications on my ...
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Should I style my buttons?
Are there any major advantages / disadvantages in styling ones buttons like Facebook, Twitter and StackExchange - vs. not styling them like Craigslist and 4chan?
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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 ...
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How to emphasize/mark one option over the other?
I'm attaching screenshot of the current section.
The left option, is the free option(obviously), while the right one, is the paid option, marked with "locked" emoji.
I'm trying to increase the "...
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Were we mistaken about rounded corners being better UX?
I am learning HTML and CSS, discovering that browsers implemented rounded corners and shadows using CSS... just about the time that UI went to "flat / sharp corners" without shadows, etc. It seems sad ...
user67695
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Does personal photo on the website improve its credibility?
I know there are several techniques to improve website credibility like putting client references, portfolio (or any proof of work and its presentation) etc. Does personal photo on the website ...
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