100 things every designer needs
to know about people
Chapter 1: How people see
1. What you see isn’t what your brains get.
The brains creates shortcuts in order to quickly make sense out the world around you. You brains receives millions
of sensory inputs every second and it’s trying to make sense of all of that input. You can influence what people see
with colors and shapes. If you want to look in the dark, don’t look straight at it! We see 2d and not 3d.
- What you think people are going to see on your web page may not be what they do see. It might depend on the
background, knowledge, familiarity with what they are looking at, and the expectations.
- You might be able to persuade people to see things in a certain way, depending on how they are presented.
2. Peripheral vision is used more than central vision to get the gist of what you see.
You have got two types of vision: central and peripheral. Central vision is what you use to look at things directly
and to see details. Peripheral vision encompasses the rest of the visual fields. People will notice movement in their
peripheral vision.
- People use peripheral vision when they look at a computer screen, and usually decide what the page is about
based on a quick glimpse. Although the middle of the screen is Important for central vision, don’t ignore what is in
the viewers’ peripheral vision. If you want users to concentrate on a certain part of the screen, don’t put
animation or blinking elements in their peripheral vision.
3. People identify objects by recognizing patterns.
Your eyes and brains want to create patterns, even if there are no real patterns there. Biederman’s geons theory
is that we recognize objects by basic shapes that we know. Called geometric icons (or geons) and Biederman
thought that there are 24 basic shapes.
- Use patterns as much as possible, since people are automatically looking for them.
- If you want people to recognize an object use simple geometric drawings.
- Favor 2D objects over 3D objects, because the eyes communicate with 2D objects to the brain.
4. There is a special part in the brain just for recognizing faces.
FFA, fusiform face area is a special place in the brain which recognizes faces. It is near to the amygdala, the
brain’s emotional center. People with autism don’t view faces with FFA but instead they use other regular
pathways in the brain. We look where a person will look, for example in a spot when a person is looking at
something we need to look where the person is looking at.
- People recognize and react to faces om we Pages faster than anything else on the page.
- Faces looking right at people will have the greatest emotional impact on a web page, because of the eyes.
- if a face on a web page looks at another spot or product on the page. People will also tend to look at that
product. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they paid attention to it, just that they physically looked at it.
5. People imagine objects tilted and at a slight angle above.
How we “see” objects in our heads? This question is answered by a big scaled test. The question was to draw a cup
of coffee and almost everybody drew it from a perspective slightly above the cup looking down. This has been
dubbed the canonical perspective.
- People recognize a drawing or an object faster and remember it better if it’s show in the canonical perspective.
- If you have icons on your web site or software application, draw them from a canonical perspective.
6. People scan screens based on past experience and expectations.
People don’t look at screen edges because they know that there is the less important part of the website like
logos, navigation bar etc. People will observe the page from their normal reading pattern (left to right or the way
to know about people
Chapter 1: How people see
1. What you see isn’t what your brains get.
The brains creates shortcuts in order to quickly make sense out the world around you. You brains receives millions
of sensory inputs every second and it’s trying to make sense of all of that input. You can influence what people see
with colors and shapes. If you want to look in the dark, don’t look straight at it! We see 2d and not 3d.
- What you think people are going to see on your web page may not be what they do see. It might depend on the
background, knowledge, familiarity with what they are looking at, and the expectations.
- You might be able to persuade people to see things in a certain way, depending on how they are presented.
2. Peripheral vision is used more than central vision to get the gist of what you see.
You have got two types of vision: central and peripheral. Central vision is what you use to look at things directly
and to see details. Peripheral vision encompasses the rest of the visual fields. People will notice movement in their
peripheral vision.
- People use peripheral vision when they look at a computer screen, and usually decide what the page is about
based on a quick glimpse. Although the middle of the screen is Important for central vision, don’t ignore what is in
the viewers’ peripheral vision. If you want users to concentrate on a certain part of the screen, don’t put
animation or blinking elements in their peripheral vision.
3. People identify objects by recognizing patterns.
Your eyes and brains want to create patterns, even if there are no real patterns there. Biederman’s geons theory
is that we recognize objects by basic shapes that we know. Called geometric icons (or geons) and Biederman
thought that there are 24 basic shapes.
- Use patterns as much as possible, since people are automatically looking for them.
- If you want people to recognize an object use simple geometric drawings.
- Favor 2D objects over 3D objects, because the eyes communicate with 2D objects to the brain.
4. There is a special part in the brain just for recognizing faces.
FFA, fusiform face area is a special place in the brain which recognizes faces. It is near to the amygdala, the
brain’s emotional center. People with autism don’t view faces with FFA but instead they use other regular
pathways in the brain. We look where a person will look, for example in a spot when a person is looking at
something we need to look where the person is looking at.
- People recognize and react to faces om we Pages faster than anything else on the page.
- Faces looking right at people will have the greatest emotional impact on a web page, because of the eyes.
- if a face on a web page looks at another spot or product on the page. People will also tend to look at that
product. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they paid attention to it, just that they physically looked at it.
5. People imagine objects tilted and at a slight angle above.
How we “see” objects in our heads? This question is answered by a big scaled test. The question was to draw a cup
of coffee and almost everybody drew it from a perspective slightly above the cup looking down. This has been
dubbed the canonical perspective.
- People recognize a drawing or an object faster and remember it better if it’s show in the canonical perspective.
- If you have icons on your web site or software application, draw them from a canonical perspective.
6. People scan screens based on past experience and expectations.
People don’t look at screen edges because they know that there is the less important part of the website like
logos, navigation bar etc. People will observe the page from their normal reading pattern (left to right or the way
